Coincidental??

We went to a Wingnuts baseball game last evening.  If you don’t know, the Wichita Wingnuts are the current tenants of the venerable Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.  We went with a group from church on dollar night and sat in the hinterlands of the stadium.  Of course, being out in the far reaches of the stadium gave us plenty of time to do things other than watch the game, which was going badly for the ‘Nuts.

About 7:45 or so, I caught myself looking around at the people from church that surrounded me, and thought to myself a very spiritual thought in a very secular place.  “We are all on a journey together…a journey in life and toward eternity,” I thought.

And as I looked around, I could think of no one better to take this journey with than those people who were around me, and others that I could think of who weren’t here.  It was one of those “warm and fuzzy” moments that I truly relished.

As I said, the game was going badly for the home team.  We left at the end of the fifth inning with the score in favor of the visitors, 4-0.  After we had been home for a bit, I got a Facebook post from a friend of mine who is the younger brother of a childhood and teenage friend.  His post seemed unsettling, so I messaged him back and asked, “What’s up?”  He messaged back and wanted my phone number to call me.

Turns out, his brother, Roy, had passed away earlier in the evening, about the same time as I was thinking at the Wingnuts game about how we were all on a spiritual journey toward eternity together.  Roy had early onset dementia, and was in the later stages, but we were not prepared for his demise.

Think about it.  Roy had also been on that journey.  He’s much closer to the end, now, in the presence of God, waiting for a redeemed and glorified body that no longer has the signs of sin and decay.  He’s crossed the great chasm that separates the living from the dead, and is waiting for us to make that leap ourselves.

Now, I’m not certain of the exact sequence of events at the close of time.  There are as many opinions on that as there are people who devise those opinions.  But there are some things I DO know, if I read my Bible correctly.  We will meet again.  We will have bodies that are no longer subject to decay and disease.  We will be in the presence of God.

I don’t know if I was thinking about that journey with those who were surrounding me at the Wingnuts game in a coincidental way, or if somehow Someone was prompting me to think about that at about the same time my friend passed away.  Doesn’t matter.  What does matter is that we know we are on that journey.  And we’re on it with others, all around us.  We WILL arrive at the end one way or the other.  Are we prepared for what lies ahead?

(By the way, the Wingnuts rallied and beat their opponents 5 to 4…we should-have stayed!)