Dear Reader,
Psalm 116:15 has been a quiet companion to me for many years:
“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.”
Lately it has grown even dearer. So many of the saints I have loved with all my heart are going home. One by one, the familiar voices that once prayed with me, laughed with me, and walked the narrow road beside me are being called into that brighter country. I feel the ache of their absence… and yet I also feel the deep, steady comfort of this verse. Their going is not loss in the eyes of Heaven. It is precious. It is noticed. It is held.
If you, too, are watching dear ones step through the veil, may these lines remind you that the same Father who treasures their departure also holds you close while you wait.
With love and gratitude,
— the poet
In the quiet chambers of eternity’s gaze,
Where stars bow low and silence softly sings,
A life once fragile, clay-bound, brief in days,
Is lifted like a jewel on angel wings.
Not the cold edge of the grave’s dark knife,
Nor the hush that settles when the breath departs,
But the moment Heaven leans with gentle life,
And the Father’s eyes grow soft with costly hearts.
Precious —
As the rarest pearl from the deepest sea,
As the final note of a long-held melody
That spent itself in praise so pure and free.
His saints do not slip unnoticed into night;
They are gathered, counted, cherished in His light.
A Shepherd who has watched each careful step,
Now gathers the lamb into His loving arms,
Not with sorrow that would make the heavens weep,
But with the quiet joy of homecoming’s charms.
The dust returns to dust, yet the soul —
Oh, the soul — is carried like pure gold
Through the thin veil into unending whole.
No accident, no afterthought, no loss.
In the sight of the Lord that final breath
Is rarer than gold refined through fire’s cost,
More valued than the morning’s first pure dew.
For He who numbers every single hair
Also numbers every heartbeat’s end with care,
And calls it precious beyond all compare.
So let the earth weep its soft, gentle tears;
Heaven does not weep the same soft way.
It opens wide its gates of gleaming pearl
And whispers over every saint who falls asleep that day:
“Come home. You were always Mine, complete.
And your going…
is precious in My sight, so sweet.”
**To God be the glory always and only.