Jean Harlow died today. Grand gal.
Those words were written by Spencer Tracy in his diary on June 7, 1937. Harlow was only 26 years old. Tracy himself died on June 10, 1967. He was 67 years old. Last night I watched a special on him, recorded a few years ago and narrated by Katharine Hepburn, who died on June 29th, (my birthday) 2003. She was 96. Each died about 30 years apart, but all eventually died.
And so it goes.
One day someone may read this and say “…and Dan Baty died on…” As s/he does so, may s/he be aware that one day s/he will also be gone and someone may be examining the remnants of his/her life as well.
The Bible describes this life, regardless of its length, as a vapor. This is not intended to depress us but to elevate our consciousness. To raise our vision above the vexations and entanglements of daily life.
Indeed, one of the big takeaways from the Resurrection of Christ is that when it comes to death, we who have placed our faith in him have nothing to be gloomy about. Instead, understanding the brevity of life helps us to be me more keenly aware of the grand opportunity before us, for a limited time only, to invest in the life to come. To get to know Him in a way exclusively available to us through the ups and downs of living here on earth. To serve Him in a way that we will never ever be able to do so again – by faith. And to honor Him by loving one another. To learn a lesson from the stars.
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