Document: /pub/resources/text/Our.Daily.Bread: db931227.TXT
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    OUR DAILY BREAD                       Monday, December 27, 1993
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    Read:  Revelation 21:1-6

                            THE END OF TEARS

             God will wipe away every tear from their eyes;
                      there shall be no more death.
                            --Revelation 21:4

    In the `Choice Gleanings' calendar, Alex Ross tells of an elderly
    Christian  woman who lay dying.  Her beloved husband sat  by  her
    bedside  tenderly holding her hand.  They both knew that the  end
    was near and that they soon would be parted.  As their eyes  met,
    a  tear  ran  down the old woman's  wrinkled  cheek.  Gently  her
    husband  wiped  it away.  Then, with a quiver in  his  voice,  he
    said, "Thank God, Mary, that's the last!"

    Separation and tears are constant companions throughout life.  At
    birth, when an infant leaves the womb, a healthy cry rings out as
    the  little one's lungs fill with air.  Years later, the  son  or
    daughter  leaves home.  More tears.  Then there's a wedding  day.
    Tears of joy and sorrow mingle as a permanent separation marks  a
    new  stage of life for both parent and child.  And at the end  of
    life,  just as at the beginning, separation and tears  close  out
    our fleeting days.  But the believer has the promise that one day
    all tears will be wiped away.

    Oh,  how  we  need to remind ourselves of the  hope  we  have  in
    Christ!  When called upon to say that last goodbye to a Christian
    loved one, we can be comforted in knowing that for the  departed,
    this  separation  marks  the  last of  earth's  sorrows  and  the
    beginning of heaven's joys.

    Author:  Dennis J. De Haan

              Friends will be there I have loved long ago,
                  Joy like a river around me will flow;
                Yet, just a smile from my Savior, I know,
                 Will through the ages be glory for me.
                                --Gabriel

    THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
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    God's children never say goodbye for the last time.

    THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:  Revelation 4-8

          
          







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