Loved ones gone…and loved ones living… – Sunday, May 29, 1960
“Each departed friend,” wrote one eminent observer, “is a magnet that attracts us to the next world.”1 It is true that our interest becomes divided, as those we love leave us. Some things hold us here, and some things pull us away. And always and ever we live with memories, with remembrance—always with some of the same questions, the same searching for assurance of the everlastingness of life.
There is this to be said, aside from all other assurances: that no loving Father would plan, in his providence, that we should learn so much of life and learn so much to love, only to let us lose both life and those whom most we love. Life is its own evidence of plan and purpose. And everlasting life is no more a miracle, no less possible, no less real than this life we live. And to those who mourn and those who remember, we would reaffirm the faith, indeed, the solid assurance that personality and truth and intelligence are perpetuated, and that memories are not only for the past, not only for the present, but also for the future—not only for what was, but also for what will yet be.
All reason supports the everlastingness of life, as well as the assurance that God has given. And now may we turn for a moment from memories and remembrance to a present look at life, besides remembering memories, may we, please God, come closer to those who are with us yet. The line of life, the line between time and eternity, is a thin line of no certain length. And may we remember to be more thoughtful of family and friends; to be more with them; more mindful of them, more courteous, more kind, more willing to make, now, more wonderful memories for the future—and more enjoy, more appreciate loved ones living, that we may have more to tie us to life now, and more faith for the future, and more memories to sustain us in any short separation. “Each departed friend is a magnet that attracts us to the next world,”1 and may each loved one living tie us to this life we live, and to loved ones everlastingly.
1Jean Paul Richter
“The Spoken Word,” heard over Radio Station KSL and the CBS Radio Network, from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, May 29, 1960, 11:30 a.m. to 12.00 noon, Eastern Time. Copyright 1960
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May 29, 1960
Broadcast Number 1,606