On a serious note, I did have a revelation with that miserable experience. As I waited to finally board my flight back south, I watched a couple of families saying good bye to their respective loved ones who happened to be boarding the same flight. The families that were staying behind were very emotional and wishing the travelers a safe flight and crying as they hugged.
One family sat near me on the plane. A young couple with two cute little boys. They were smiling and very excited to be on an airplane, apparently their first time. The husband and wife were smiling and they looked pretty excited as well.
We taxied out to the runway, paused briefly, and the engines began winding up and we were rolling. I watched that flame from the refinery as we lifted off and in a few seconds, we were deep into that thick smog and the flame was gone. It was like we were flying through soup. A few seconds later, the brown began to lighten up and suddenly we were free of the smog. Looking down, I saw a sea of brown. Looking up, I saw the most beautiful blue sky with billowing white cumulus clouds in the distance.
It was then that I realized what death really is. I no longer fear death because, in my mind, I get it. Funerals are not for the departed. Funerals are for the families and friends of the departed. They are the loved ones left behind at the gate back under that blanket of smog. Our departed loved ones are on that plane, smiling and giddy with excitement of what lay ahead of them as they soar into the blue.
When my father passed a few years later, there were many tears. And though I shed quite a few tears of my own, I felt a sense of happiness and comfort knowing that Dad had "slipped the surely bonds of earth" and was now facing the possibilities and opportunities that awaited across that endless crisp, blue sky.
Just a thought. As you were...
God loves your father. God loves you. Don’t listen to these people who tell you he could be in eternal agony. They’re wrong.