They Live and We Live Because He Lives!

Losing friends and family to death is heartbreaking; losing a parent or spouse is devastating.

As Christians we enjoy the promise that if the deceased was a believer, we will at some point in the future see them again face to face. It’s that promise that comforts us in our grief, acts as a spiritual salve for our suffering and gives us endearing hope that however bleak our loss may seem, we can anticipate joyfully reuniting one day with lost loved ones.

Our family lost its patriarch Easter week last year, and despite the knowledge that his warrior’s heart was growing fainter, we clung to the emotional life buoy that he would thwart death’s advance one more time. We believed it because he believed it.

The day before he passed, our 83-year-old Dad told my sister he honestly thought he wasn’t going to die, that he just had to rest awhile, regain some weight that he’d lost and he’d be back to work soon running his concrete finishing business.

Dad loved to work, and everyone that knew him respected him for his work ethic. Sadly, there was no working around two heart attacks that night. With the aid of a ventilator his heart was still working the next morning, but he had no pulse.

His instructions had been clear in such an event: he wanted nothing to do with life support or hospice, no postponing the inevitable if his once tireless body had finally worn out.

Dad was at peace with dying because he knew what millions of other faithful servants before him had known: because our Lord beat sin and death through His selfless act of love on the cross at Calvary, there was no reason to fear death. Nor was there any reason to dread it or run from it.

Somehow it seemed appropriate that the funeral services celebrating Dad’s life were held at 11 a.m. on Good Friday. It was at that hour over 2,000 years ago that Jesus hung in agony from a wooden cross on behalf of an unbelieving and undeserving humanity. A few hours later the blameless one who had been mocked as King of the Jews was carefully removed from that cruel Roman cross, wrapped in donated linens and mournfully placed in a borrowed grave.

After Jesus fulfilled his Father’s plan to offer humanity a spiritual life buoy by reconciling us to Him through the forgiveness of our sins, what happened next demonstrates why our Dad didn’t fear dying. On that third day following his scourging and crucifixion, Christ’s rising from the dead is why none of us have to fear dying – today, tomorrow or ever.

Easter is a joyful reminder that though we shed involuntary tears when losing loved ones, the seemingly insurmountable abyss separating us from them is temporary. The promise of seeing them again isn’t a fairy tale or a mental illusion meant to give us temporary solace in our grief.

God’s love for us is greater than anything in this world. Mercifully, even the inevitable sting of death isn’t permanent to anyone who trusts in the risen Christ.

Thanks for reading Dean Riffs. For those who love American liberty, free enterprise, and who believe God has blessed our country, welcome. For those who believe in open borders, safe spaces, and who tolerate everything but free speech and conservative ideals, move on – there’s nothing here for you to see. 

The post was written Easter weekend, 2016 while returning from Dad’s funeral in Florida

Copyright 2017, Dean A. George©

Hillary’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Election

I’m bummed because I didn’t earn a mention in Hillary Clinton’s fantastical autobiography “What Happened.” For those who aren’t following Hillary’s pathetic 2017 Exculpatory & Exoneration Tour, “What Happened” is her unplugged biography of how she lost the 2016 presidential election. In this over-the-top whine fest she listed no fewer …

The Dental Plan Price is Right

(Announcer) “Here it comes from the Samuel Smiley television studio in Los Amalgam, California – it’s the Dental Plan Price is Right!” “Freddie Fluoride, come on down!” “Candace Crown, come on down!” “Maxine Mandibular, come on down!” “Peter Pontic, come on down!” (Announcer) “You are the first four contestants on …

Diversity Supporters Need More Diversity

Diversity. How liberals love it. To liberal minds diversity is the greatest thing since sliced non-white bread. If Dr. Seuss were alive he might write that liberal perversity demands civil diversity. To liberals diversity and its twin inclusivity are the hallmarks of American goodness. They love all kinds of diversity: …

The Dentist, the Doctor and the Denture

As a devoted non-devotee of graphic autopsies, facial reconstructions and DNA swabs,  I proudly count myself as one of seven people in America that has never watched an episode of CSI.  If it’s still on the air in one of its many spin offs (CSI Mayberry? CSI Beverly Hills? CSI Nineveh?), I also have no intention of doing so.

It’s not that I thought the show was lame, but I get nauseous just spelling “formaldehyde.” In high school biology class I recall breaking out in a cold sweat dissecting Peeves the frog.

But enough about my pet Peeves. In my day job I once blogged about a medical doctor who was serving as a military volunteer. Though he was commissioned second in command of his unit, he insisted on fighting side by side with the infantrymen. Tragically, he was killed by an enemy solder while surrendering before being laid in a common grave by the enemy.

His remains were only identified  when his dentist confirmed the deceased doctor’s denture was the same one he had placed the year before.

Riddle: guess the time period described above? Was it:

a) Before World War I
b) Before the Civil War
c) Before Dolly Madison baked her famous Zingers at President Madison’s second inauguration
d) Before Harry Met Sally

If you correctly guessed none of the above, you are smarter than the 64% of Americans who can’t name the three branches of the federal government – which isn’t saying much since even Peeves could croak out one of the three.

But I digress. The deceased was Dr. Joseph Warren, otherwise known as The Hero of Bunker Hill. The doctor was posthumously hailed a hero and after a positive identification his body was brought to Boston with full honors.

The dentist that identified Warren was…well, more on that shortly.

The Rest of the Story

Dr. Warren’s dentist was a multi-tasker before multi-tasking was invented. After his father died when he was just 19, Warren’s friend took over his father’s goldsmith business and also expanded into silversmithing and copper engraving to support his mother and siblings. Three years later he had his own family to care for, eventually fathering eight children.

From 1768 to 1775 he took up dentistry to help provide for his expanded family. In addition to cleaning teeth he also crafted dentures carved from walrus ivory or animal teeth. When his first wife died unexpectedly in 1773, he remarried and fathered eight more children. Talk about multi-tasking!

Once the Revolutionary War began the part-time dentist and around-the-clock patriot manufactured gun powder and cannon for General George Washington’s Army, printed America’s first currency and oversaw the protection of Boston Harbor.

After the War he opened the country’s first copper-rolling mill, ran a hardware store and later a foundry.  He worked until the age of 76 in 1811 and enjoyed a few years of much deserved retirement before his death in 1818.

All those accomplishments notwithstanding, this multitalented colonialist and part-time dentist is best known for a midnight horse ride throughout the Massachusetts countryside immortalized by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

“Listen my children and you shall hear, of the midnight ride of Paul Revere…”

Thanks for reading Dean Riffs. For those who love American liberty, free enterprise, and who believe God has blessed our country, welcome. For those who believe in open borders, safe spaces, and who tolerate everything but free speech and conservative ideals, move on – there’s nothing here for you to see. 

The original version of this post was published at Dental Insurance Store on Sept 23, 2014

Sources: biography.com, nps.gov, foresthillstrust.org
Photo sources: youtube.com, picturingamerica.salemstate.edu, fanart.tv

 

Copyright 2017, Dean A. George©

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