The Pastor's Last Sermon
Breakfasting at IHOP
The man in the next booth
finished talking to his wife
on his walkie-talkie.
He said:
God bless!
I love you.
I'm gone!
I swiped the words
thinking they were the ideal
obituary.
God Bless!
What more can be
said about life?
Every morning is an
undeserved gift. Each
evening a blessing.
If not blessed, then
life is something less
than was promised.
I love you
sums up the prophets
and the law. To love
and be loved is life's
greatest promise
and our finest achievement.
Love trumps dislike,
finess anger and spite,
defeats ennui.
In the end there is faith
hope and love.
You know
which is the greatest.
I'm gone.
I suspect this is a finality
only from the perspective
of the living.
Who is to say to where
I have gone when I depart
this breathing
physical body?
I'm gone suffices--
and contains within its finality
the hope of another meeting,
as when the man in IHOP
returns home to love's arms.