Here She Comes

I received this little illustration several years ago at the funeral of my dear friend, Mark Kram. It has always meant a lot to Pattie and I. We put it in the program of my Mother-in-law's funeral.

I was standing upon the seashore; a ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud where the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other. And someone at my side says, “There, she’s gone.”

Gone where? Gone from my sight, that is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and span as she was when she left my side and just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her; and just at the moment when someone at my side says, “There, she’s gone,” there are other eyes watching her coming and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, “Here she comes!”. . .

. . . And that is dying for those who trust in Jesus Christ’s work on the cross for their salvation.