We come into this world with nothing of substance. The first thing given to us is a body. We leave this world with nothing of substance. The last thing taken from us is our body. We are not our body.

We cry when we enter this world while everyone else may be smiling. We may smile when we leave this world while everyone else is crying. Today, it is not our turn to smile but to cry. But sorrow serves us well in this life.

Ecclesiastes 7:2 Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, For that is the end of all men; And the living will take it to heart.

Hebrews 9:27 It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.

We do not choose whether or when we will live. We do not choose whether or when we will die. The choices which we do make are during a life and a time which we do not make or choose. We owe all of our life and all of its choices to the One Who made us. We have nothing that we did not receive.

We will all live again. There will be a resurrection. The life to come will not be like this life, because it will never end, we will not be subject to death, and the miseries and sorrows that accompany this life will be gone.

All these considerations do not make this life unimportant. They only put it in perspective.

1 Timothy 6:7-8 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.

This does not mean we should desire nothing, pursue nothing, strive to excel at nothing. It only means that regardless of our circumstances – what we do, what we have, what we are – we are to rest in the Lord.

When someone comes into this world, a memory of them is begun. When someone passes out of this world, that memory of them is completed. The body is put away from us, the memory is all that remains with us.

Job 1:21 Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD.

Ecclesiastes 3:20 All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust.

Ecclesiastes 12:7 Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.

We look to the Lord alone for peace. He is our only comfort. Help us to remember the lessons to be learned from Tamzon’s life; to remember that her life was a gift to us from You.

My 81-year-old mother died this week. The day before her death she told one of the doctors, “I spent 80 years asleep — paying no attention to what was going on in the world and only listening to what they fed me on the television. But this past year I woke up and found Ron Paul. His ideas are what will save this country. Listen to Ron Paul.”