"Bidding The Buglar Goodbye" was the headlines in today's local paper, along with these pictures. The Buglar was Tom Larner, a much beloved local policeman who also played trumpet at his church. He died at age 36 after a two year battle with cancer. For his funeral, many local streets were closed and policemen came from far and wide. Fifty policemen had met for over a week, even before Tom died, to plan the procession routes and protocol of the funeral. It was big. It made the headlines. His casket was pulled by horses, there was a bagpiper in traditional Scottish dress, alone on a hill. And after the 21 gun salute, a lone buglar played "Taps" for his fallen buglar friend. Plaintive. Most of my posts are uplifting, but a promise I made when I started this blog was to write about how I see God in my everyday life. And this was what touched me the most today and inspired this post. It got me to thinking about a devotional I read a long time ago that I've never forgotten and always take to heart. It's about living your life backwards. Live your life as If you were watching your funeral. What will people say about you and remember you for? I have heard this said about many people at their funerals. "I never heard him say a bad word about anyone." What a fine thing to aspire to! Something much better than many of the unattainable New Year's Resolutions I have heard. Psalm 116:15 says this: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." My commentary says this means that God is close to us even in death, and He carefully choses the time when we will be called in to His presence. So perhaps this post is not so bleak after all.
4 comments:
Great post, Ginny. I agree that we all should hope that, when we die, we will be remembered for the good we have done and shared along life's paths. I want people to remember me as a person who loved life to its fullest with God at the center of my life. If they can say that about me, I will have lived the kind of life that my parents instilled in me, and one that I hope I have instilled in my three sons.
Fabulous post... I love posts that always make me THINK...
Have a glorious Sunday, Ginny.
Hugs,
Betsy
Awesome post. the wife of this gentleman is Michael's teacher at school. He had actually asked for prayer for Mr Larner just days before he passed. He likes Ms Larner alot so apparently they are both really awesome people cause you can't fool kids very easily.
A wonderful post Ginny. If we all lived life this way it would be a better world.
Judy
i like the living life backwards, i am going to try that, thanks for the reminder to do things that will leave parts of me behind when i am gone. love this post
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