The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith
The Last Leaf
While battling a nasty cold virus this week, I looked out my window at the trees in our back yard. There are a few shriveled yellow leaves left on the branches. Against the backdrop of the black storm clouds behind, the effect was dramatically stark and bleak. I was reminded of O’Henry’s short story called “The Last Leaf” in which a young woman with pneumonia watches from her bed the wall opposite her New York flat through her window. There is an old ivy vine that has established itself there for many years. As she watches, she begins to count backwards as the leaves in her view fall from their branches. She declares that when the last leaf falls she will die. But while she is sleeping one night, an artist downstairs paints a leaf on the side of the wall so that the last leaf would never fall. As a result, the young woman decides she will live after all.
None of us can say when or how we will die. When Dan first received the news of this second cancer, he said that he hadn’t planned on leaving me so soon. Until we had mourned through to acceptance of our new reality, his diagnosis felt like a death sentence. And before twelve years ago when T-cell therapy was beginning to be explored, it would have been.
God alone knows when each of us will leave this failing tent and enter eternity. But we don’t. As King Solomon noted, just like the birds of the air and the fish in the sea, “…man also knows not his time” (Eccl. 9:12). “For he knows not that which shall be…There is no man that has power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither has he power in the day of death” (Eccl. 8:7-8). As Hebrews 9:27 points out “… as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.”
Neither Dan nor I fear death because we understand that our time on earth is merely training for living in Heaven eternally. Philippians 1:21 says it best: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” In addition, Romans 14:8-9 says, “For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.”
Our sins are forgiven, our faith is in God, and in His eyes we are upright, clothed in Jesus’ righteousness. So we look forward to eternal life with our Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm 37:18 reminds us that “The Lord knows the days of the upright and their inheritance shall be forever.” If you do not know Jesus of the Bible as your savior, I urge you to repent and ask Him to save you. You might not have another day before the last leaf falls in which to consider His offer of salvation. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). Finally, consider the additional details of salvation in Romans 10:9-10: “…if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
If you have questions about salvation or about the Bible, please contact me and let’s explore God’s Word together.
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Update and Prayer Request: This week Dan has been fighting the same cold as I have and it seems to be lingering longer for him. Perhaps this is a sign that his body is, indeed, somewhat weakened by the cancer and the treatments he is getting. So far no other side-effects have manifested themselves. Please pray that Dan’s cold will heal. We continue to praise God that the immunotherapy has been so effective so far.
