Ian and Hazel were/are my atheist friends. I have spoken with them about Jesus, but they were raised catholic in Belfast so that seems to predispose them to a visceral aversion to connecting with God. They have made an affirmative decision to reject God. But they are my friends. We are called upon to be in the world but not of the world. Until today the passage about being absent from the body is to be present with the Lord - for believers - was just a verse I had studied. I've had people I love die - mom and Daddy, my Rollins grandparents. Normal things. But I awoke at 5a this morning in the McMurtry house feeling what I can only describe somewhat oxymoronically as a tangible absence of Ian. Not absent like my Dad is absent but somehow a void had substance. It was - for me - a unique experience. Donna felt it too: she felt strange - like something was wrong when she awoke at 4a. Hazel said she awoke at 5a and could not go back to sleep - but did not say why.
I always wondered. The only people close to me who have died have known the Lord and there is the knowledge that they still are. But I wondered what it felt like for people who rejected God, or didn't know about Him to begin with. It sounds like a desperate void.
ReplyDelete