"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." Philippians 1:21
I go in a few moments to conduct the funeral service for Sam Hotchkiss. He was a kind man and good Christian. His passing reminds me of a missionary’s son named Matthew Huffman.
Matthew hadn’t reached his tenth birthday when he awoke with a fever at his parent’s home in Brazil. As his temperature soared, he began to loose his eyesight. His mother and father put him in the care and raced to the nearest hospital. As the drove, the boy lay in his mother’s lap unmoving. Then suddenly he put one hand into the air. His mother gently pulled back down but he raised it again. So she moved it back again. Then when Matthew reached out the third time, his mother asked him what he was reaching for.
His answer stunned them both. "I am reaching for Jesus’ hand." With those words, Matthew closed his eyes and slipped into a coma from which he did not recover. He died two days later from bacterial meningitis.
Matthew was a child but wise enough to know who to reach for in the hour of their death. Sam did the same. King David was right when he said:
"The good man, the man of peace, he has a wonderful future ahead of him. For him there is a happy ending." Psalm 37:37
Well done, Sam. Well done.
Michael