A KERNAL OF WHEAT FALLS

As I walked up to the casket, bagpipe music softly wailed “Amazing Grace.” I knew Patty was in heaven, still I felt like crying. Is it acceptable to ask, “Why would one of the kindest people I know die at age forty-nine?

Some eulogies are spread so thick with the frosting of compliments that you wonder if they’re really talking about the person who died.

Admit it; you’ve experienced this.

With Patty, no frosting was needed to sweeten or to smear over flaws in her life.

Days leading to her death, I had been pondering Jesus’ words; letting them infiltrate my brain. “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

Our lives are initially a single kernel of wheat. Completely focused on our own wants, needs and desires; at the end of life a single life has been bettered—your own.

Then there is the dying seed scenario.

Here’s how it works. Patty never drove. She usually walked or rode her three-wheel bike to her numerous volunteer activities. She helped at a nursing home with her church, at school she mentored children, and if there was a charity walkathon, she was probably involved.  Patty was prolific in sending out cards—condolences, get-wells, on and on. She was even taking piano lessons to fill a need in the small church she attended. Her pastor said in the eulogy: “Patty probably shared Jesus with more people than I ever will.”

By serving the needs of others, Patty produced many seeds. She improved the lives of countless people.  

Most why-death questions are never answered. There is a much more important question.

How? How did you live the time God gave you?