Well, I have no real words to accurately offer condolences, just tears. I have a special-neeeds boy of 4 years old, whom I'm currently waiting on to finish his **** cookie so he doesn't make me spank him! Hold-on, I'll be right back.
Alright, I'm back after giving him a serious verbal warning that if he doesn't eat that cookie in the next 5 minutes, he will be nothing more than a bloody pulp, or something close to that.
He was born 3 months premature @ 2#, 3 oz, and at 4 years old, refuses to chew his food, and talks at about the level of an 18-month-old infant, but he is very cute, and I still wouldn't trade him for the world.
We have also recently been blessed with his brother, who like the 4-year-old, says "We don't need no stiiinkiiing 9 months!", and came into this world about a week longer in gestation than his older brother, and @ 2#, 11 oz this time. He is still in the NICU at Shands Teaching Hospital in Gainesville, FL, and is doing well as can be expected.
Getting back to Sarge's boy, I think the best way to look at this, and this is a totally utilitarian way I admit, is God has some of His children sentenced to life in this prison called earth (in the bible, He calls it the pit) for a long time. This may have to do with how long of a time the person needs to be here to finish said sentence and be welcomed into the real kingdom, that place of everlasting peace and joy where sin can no longer reach us. For others, such as great achievers like Sarge's boy, the sentence is just long enough to show others what can be accomplished in a short lifetime if one sticks to it.
At least this is my take on the current situation, because for the life of me, I can't figure out any other reason why I'm still here and some really great people I've known, or about whom I've read, are no longer shackled to us.
I long to see the day when the only voice capable of piercing the ears of the dead tells the rightous ones to awake from their sleep and come out of their graves to meet Him in the air.