From the Funeral of Kent Henry

This morning a family very dear to us buried their son, brother, husband, father, uncle, and friend. Kent Henry was 49. He would have been 50 at the end of next month. He will be spending that birthday with his father, Owen, and with their Father. 

The officiating minister, Darrel Brandon, echoed the sentiments we all shared--it’s not fair, and 49 years is not long enough.

 But maybe, he said, maybe it is long enough.

It’s long enough to make a lot of friends. It’s long enough to make beautiful cabinetry and other art from wood. It’s long enough to restore some antique tractors. It’s long enough to leave a legacy of service, care and education through A.B.A.T.E and 4-H. It’s long enough to continue the line of the good Henry name. It’s long enough to have a good marriage with his wife Penny (although we all agree that three years sure doesn’t feel like enough). It’s long enough when you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

His words shifted my whole perspective. It was as though I had stepped out from under the funeral home’s weather-protective gazebo and into the sunshine and blue sky (and I soon proceeded to do just that). I noticed something I had missed before.

Hope.

I think of Hope as this great big concept, like Faith and Love, and it is. But today I learned yet again that hope can be a kernel, a sparkle, a grain of sand. Hope is with us the entire time but often we are not looking the right way, in the right place, to the right One.

Hope doesn't make everything all better, but it does make everything more bearable. And when life is pain, sorrow, insanity, and instability, the smallest drop of Hope can make a huge difference, and lead us to the One in whom our hope is sure. (Heb 6:19)