kHesed, keith

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his merciful ones.”  Psalm 116:15
JUB

He died in the middle of the night.
I didn’t learn of it until the next morning,
but the sky over the lake had given me a sign.
A bank of clouds pushed across the lake toward me,
threads of cloud reaching heavenward,
and beyond that, a golden horizon.

This was his home-going sky.
He was there, soaring heavenward on the cloud-threads,
landing on the golden shore
long before I knew that he’d left,
arrived and safe, all danger passed.

He taught me that kHesed held two big ideas:
covenant and hospitality,
both initiated by God,
God’s own big ideas for the formation of a people 
covenanted with Him to be the hospitable ones,
extending ourselves to strangers and sojourners,
never hoarding what God gives,
not our money or our homes or our country.
Lessons well learned, dear friend.

He knew that he’d live forever,
so, there was no fear as he left
except the awe-and-wonder-fear of landing
in the hospitable arms of his covenant Lord.

Liz McFadzean 

“Breathe on me breath of God, so shall I never die
but live with you the perfect life for all eternity.”  Edwin Hatch