"There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
***From the Blog Archive Series, May 24, 2011***
I came across a very sad story yesterday. A young father of three who was only 24 years old, died. It touched my heart that he'd worked at a neighborhood Lowe's to put his wife through nursing school and did all he could to provide for his family. He wanted to make a better life for himself and his family and so he applied at the local fire department because he wanted to have a part in saving lives and wanted his sons to remember him as a professional life saver, a firefighter, and a daddy who made it his life's work to help others. Just a few days into his firefighter training, he and his family went to hang out at the lake, but he never made it out alive. He became the hero he always wanted his sons to see him become, only this time he lost his life, saving theirs and another little girl. After they were all safe, his was gone.I couldn't help but wonder, "Lord, why?" Just when it seemed he was getting things together and becoming the man that he wanted to be, this happened. A man of 24 years old with a wife and three young children, just taken away. It didn't make much sense. But the only peace that I could get from reading that story was that he became a hero saving the lives of his two sons and that young girl. But, it left a void because now people grieves for him. A wife who loved him. Children who looked up to him. Family who loved and cared for him. Friends he knew and helped throughout his lives. And just people like me who never met him but respected what he stood for. And I realize that there is a time and a place for all things. It is now time for weeping, but again there will be laughter. A young man died but life will be built again through all the lives he touched. Though this story is so sad, by and by it will be turned into joy in remembrances of the man that God lent to all who knew him for 24 years. Through this season of rain, yes, the sun will shine again.
Michael Dewayne Jones, Jr.
July 6, 1986 - May 21, 2011
