Ah Death! or, The Touch That Fells The Flower...

By now most of us have heard the tragic headline news...

 ...of how retired N.B.A. star, Kobe Bryant, 41, and his daughter Gianna 

were among nine people in a helicopter that crashed near Calabasas, Calif. 

Also among the victims, a college baseball coach and his wife and daughter.

Whether Death visits publicly or privately 

We all will face its forever-ness as we come face to face with The Giver 

of this precious gift of life...

 Job 14:5
Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, 

thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;

2 Samuel 14:14
For surely we will die and be like water poured out on the ground, which cannot be recovered. 

Yet God does not take away a life; but He devises ways 

so that the banished one may not remain estranged from Him.

It strews like ash upon the sea, the petals of the bloom

It bids us touch more tenderly the threads still in life’s loom

With sacred dread it bows the head of both sinner and saint

It cautions words still left unsaid in thought’s would-be complaint

…and suddenly the things we do demand sincerity

It wakens a more humble view of who we ought to be

Where once again we are reminded of what matters most

Lest we forget and become blinded by man’s feeble boast

It wakens an awesome awareness to time’s fragile hold

We all are subject to death’s sureness, whether young or old

Therefore, while the hour still blooms with Opportunity

Pray we prepare for what yet looms and none of us can see

The gift of life, ah, what a precious, purposed brevity

Where Time runs rife with moments closing in eternity

And who can know the hour when God’s power will patrol

The Touch that fells the flower that harbours the living soul

© Janet Martin

 Therefore take careful heed to yourselves, that you love the LORD your God.

Joshua 23:11