It's The Touching

I am working on a funeral sermon I have to give this weekend in South Carolina. The lady we honor was a champion. She lived ten years after it was discovered she needed a lung transplant. She had the transplant and lived eight more years. As I began to think of her I called my remarks: "Fingerprints." She touched many. She was a Nurse and taught nursing. She was a Mother and a wife. She was a dedicated member of her church. She touched many people. As I thought of what I wanted to say, I remembered some words from Ray Bradbury which are found in his old book, Farenheit 451. I think his wonderful observations are worth pondering:

"Everyone must leave something behind when he dies. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hands touched someway so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there. It doesn't matter what you do, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching. The lawncutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime." Best wishes in the touching!