So he sent the clipping home to the dead
soldier’s parents, that they might be comforted by what their son believed, that his
faith might help strengthen their faith, the clipping read something like this.
"We are standing on a shore. A large sailing ship is about
to pull out. Friends and relatives of ours are standing on the deck, waving goodbye,
throwing streamers, calling to us, calling our names. And we call to them and to each
other. ‘Look, there’s Grandma…there’s Uncle Joe…there’s
Uncle Bill.’ A bell sounds. The ships begins to move away.
"We stand silently for a very long time and watch as the
ship goes further and further away until, finally, the mast is just a vertical pencil line
on the distant horizon. Then it too goes down, until we can no longer see it. And we sigh,
‘Oh, she’s gone.’
"But gone from where? Gone from our sight. That’s all.
"For at the very moment we sigh, ‘Oh, she’s
gone,’ another cried on another shore is jumping up and down, laughing and yelling
and pointing excitedly out to sea saying, ‘Look! She’s coming. Look, the ship Is
coming home! Look! There’s Grandma…there’s Uncle Joe…there’s
Uncle Bill.’"
The ship is coming home. There is another shore, another
dimension in which we have already begun to live. We are filled with the Spirit of our
Risen Savior—forever.
edited by Dr. S.M. Henriques
