A funeral service to prepare for brother Sam.

A quiet, soft voice wept in the phone, "Pastor Bruce, this is Kessiah, my father Sam died yesterday and I have been trying to reach you. I have never met you but my father spoke so highly of you." As I paused to let her relay the story of his passing, my inner voice called out to the Lord. "God, you know how I loved Sam and I felt such an affinity with him as if we were brothers. He was black. I was white. He was tall. I am short. He was elderly in the waning years of life. I was a young man in the prime of life. He could sing. I really do not have a singing voice. Most inspiring was his courageous faith. Sam was physically blind but I could see. Yet we had such a bond in our love for Christ. He had an uncanny 20/20 spiritual vision and could see with the eyes of his heart.

We loved the Lord. He had been a pastor for many years. Lord, he fought his cancer so bravely for so long. The doctors had declared him near death's door over and over. He prayed and believed and lived victoriously praising the Lord and never missing church. Being blind, he needed a ride to church every Sunday and my wife would go and pick him up because I wasn't physically able to assist him along and into the vehicle. He played his guitar and sang every Sunday morning during the morning worship. He even went to the local hospital with us on Sunday afternoon to encourage the residents. He enjoyed the presence of the Lord and coming together with other Christians. I have missed Sam very much since his health failed and he was admitted into the Veteran's Hospital. Just before he was admitted to the Veteran's, one Sunday afternoon after church service on a ride back to Sam's place, we vowed to see each other in heaven. How edifying to hear Sam sing Amazing Grace, "I once was lost, but now I am found, was blind but now I see."

2 Corinthians 5:7-9 (King James Version)For we walk by faith, not by sight: We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.

Sam, look's like you made it. There's no pain. You can sing with the heavenly choir and be re-united with family and friends as you share words of praise and love to God from glory to glory.