and we will come to...
Illustration
"... and we will come to him and make our home with him (v. 23)."
James Donders, Roman Catholic priest and missionary to Kenya, East Africa, reports an incident common to the experience of most ministers. As Christmas approached, one of his elderly parishioners fell ill with congestive heart disease. He went to the hospital to visit her in the intensive care unit and found her sleeping. Not wanting to disturb her, he sat and waited. Within a few minutes her eyes opened wide and a broad smile bloomed across her weather-beaten freckled face. It was an unforgettable moment. Unable to speak, the woman, named Cochan, began to spell out a word on the bed sheets. With labored movements her finger finally spelled out the word: home. As Donders describes her death, "On January 4th, late in the afternoon, Cochan went quietly home."
To paraphrase James Weldon Johnson ("Go Down Death"). On January 4th, God sat back on his great white throne and said to the angel, "Go down Death and bring me sister, Cochan. She has labored long and hard in my vineyard. She is tired and weary. Go down Death and bring her to me. Bring her home."
James Donders, Jesus, Hope Drawing Near, (Maryknoll, N. Y.: Orbis Books, 1985), p. 125. James Weldon Johnson, "Go Down Death," from God's Trombones.
- Cueni
James Donders, Roman Catholic priest and missionary to Kenya, East Africa, reports an incident common to the experience of most ministers. As Christmas approached, one of his elderly parishioners fell ill with congestive heart disease. He went to the hospital to visit her in the intensive care unit and found her sleeping. Not wanting to disturb her, he sat and waited. Within a few minutes her eyes opened wide and a broad smile bloomed across her weather-beaten freckled face. It was an unforgettable moment. Unable to speak, the woman, named Cochan, began to spell out a word on the bed sheets. With labored movements her finger finally spelled out the word: home. As Donders describes her death, "On January 4th, late in the afternoon, Cochan went quietly home."
To paraphrase James Weldon Johnson ("Go Down Death"). On January 4th, God sat back on his great white throne and said to the angel, "Go down Death and bring me sister, Cochan. She has labored long and hard in my vineyard. She is tired and weary. Go down Death and bring her to me. Bring her home."
James Donders, Jesus, Hope Drawing Near, (Maryknoll, N. Y.: Orbis Books, 1985), p. 125. James Weldon Johnson, "Go Down Death," from God's Trombones.
- Cueni
