Wikipedia: Faith is the confident belief or trust in the truth or trustworthiness of a person, concept or thing. Since faith implies a trusting reliance upon future events or outcomes, it is often taken by some people as inevitably synonymous with a belief "not resting on logical proof or material evidence. Thus, faith disqualifies reasoning in favour of "transcendent reality".
"Don't touch that putty knife Ginette, you will cut yourself", says my mother to a much younger me. Yup, Ginette grabs the putty knife when no one is looking and, you guessed it, she cuts herself! Too embarrassed to admit to her action, she wraps her finger in a tissue and fights back the tears. Dad was doing the fall routine of taking off the summer screens and putting up the storm windows which often needed the cleaning of the old putty and replacing it with new fresh soft putty. My father looked over and saw the pain in my eyes and gently checked out the source of my distress. With a knowing smile, he quietly cleans the wound and places a band-aid. With a wink, he says ... "You should really trust in what your mother says!"
Mother said, "There is a God and He does promise us a place in Heaven if we are good."
Bill was a good man. He was a man of principle, values and strong morals. These were grounded in his belief in God. I have Faith that he is in Heaven watching over his family from above. I have Faith that one day, I will "Bforever" with him. I have Faith that Bill now knows the depth of my love because his vision is no longer confined by the human need to rationalize what we are feeling. Every day, from the day I first declared my love, the words "I love you" have crossed my lips ... even today. I rest in God's promise and say with great Faith .. "Until We Meet Again!"
I have read somewhere that a man well schooled in theology and life says that his answer to the questions of afterlife is that whatever wonderful scenario we can imagine for life after death, God's gifts will be infinitely greater, and surprising!
So for now, I amuse myself by painting wonderful scenarios in my mind of lush gardens and cooling streams walking hand in hand with Bill-forever.
Now if I can only get the "being good" part perfected!
I love this post, Ginette. Your definition of the place where we'll meet our beloved in the afterlife is comforting. I've also heard it described as incredibly simple and that we'll learn that all of our questions and doubts will be answered by seeing that they were not questions at all. With our limited earthly intelligence, we simply aren't able to ask the right questions.
ReplyDeleteBe good:-)