"Calm yourselves!  It's me.  Don't be afraid."  Mark 6:50

Today's scriptures are well known to all of us raised within the Christian tradition.  Surely, I have always found them lovely; their promises feed my very soul.  But, today, as I reflect upon these words, they have taken on new layers of meaning.

For in this past week, I have come to know the fear, the pain, and the love of walking with a loved one as they prepare to depart this world.  My Dad is dying--slipping away from me moment by moment.  Indeed, as I write this one week before Christmas, he lies to my right--punctuating the soft strains of music with the sporadic breathing of one who will die shortly.

Never, have I walked into a more difficult storm.  No where to run, no place to hide from the enormity of the sorrow--and love would not let me run anyway.  How could I run away from one whose very life and constant presence in my life embodied giving and loving?  No running away just isn't/wasn't an option.

So, here we are--my mother, my brother, and I--tending to his body while God and he labor to shed this earthly world and give birth to his new life.

We feel the darkness of loss, the turmoil of the storm, the fear of tomorrows without him.  And, yet...it is clear that we are not alone.  God is here--in the midst of the tears of good-bye, in the nurturant caring for his ravaged body, and in the quiet moments of prayers and memories.  We are surrounded by the Holy--holding us all as we walk into and through this sacred storm.

Indeed, Jesus is here...saying, "Calm yourselves!  It's me.  Don't be afraid."

And, so it is...thanks be to God.

D. Dale Scritchfield's spirit was freed from his earthly body at 5:04 p.m. CST on December 20, 1998--in his home of 35 years in Osceola, IA. At his side were his wife, Erma, son, Dale, daughter, Shirley, and son-in-law, Tom.  And all were surrounded by the Spirit's love.