There doesn’t seem to be a moment when I don’t think about David. Sometimes long periods of time pass when I stare off into space with only him in my thoughts. I was driving to to my first stop this morning, and I passed the light where you turn to go back to Aster Drive where Paragon Mills Church of Christ still worships. David hired me to be a youth pastor there, and that’s where I met Carey. That was almost 25 years ago.

Joe Beam wrote an amazing book called Seeing The Unseen, and I’ve since started reading it again on my Kindle. I don’t know what David is experiencing as I type these words right now, but I know he’s not struggling to breath anymore. His being is no longer flesh and bones, but I think Joe is right in that he isn’t an angel. He’s among the angels, but as a former human being on planet Earth he’s able to share with the angels what it’s like to be human. I can only imagine from reading Seeing The Unseen what that must be like. There’s a spiritual world I’ve not seen except the conversations in dreams I had with Ty Osman. I’ve yet to have any conversations with David in dreams, and I will not practice necromancy because that is black magic, and God has forbidden necromancy and other black magic practices. Angels I assume can orchestrate conversations in dreams because it’s biblical that angels can communicate with human beings through dreams. I see no reason why an angel would not have facilitated an interaction between Ty and me.

To ignore the supernatural is to ignore faith, and if you think the only thing real is seen then I hope you’ll reconsider. As a Christian I received the gift of the Holy Spirit on May 27, 1983 in Hoxie, Kansas, and I still don’t understand the mystery of it. I don’t have to understand it to believe it. David no longer has to rely on faith to give him hope because I think he’s seeing the “unseen” in real-time. Those of us left behind still must practice the faith he modeled when he was here. The fact that he is not here is extremely painful, and though that pain might lessen with time it will never go away because death was never meant to be. We long for death to be ultimately defeated, but we strive in the mean time to wait knowing that the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ will ultimately express itself in destroying death on the last day. Seeing The Unseen is beautiful in it’s semantic in painting a picture of desperation Satan feels about his ultimate destruction. The Bible teaches that Satan and his forces rule the earth. He’s a powerful angel bent on evil destruction, and we must never underestimate his ability to kill, steal and destroy. He will continue to do that until Christ reveals Himself to mankind for the second time. Satan has limits because he isn’t all powerful like God, nor is he everywhere all the time like God. He has forces in Europe and North America and every other continent, but God is present on both continents, and God can also dispatch angels like Michael to fight the angelic followers of Satan. We are in good hands, but we don’t dwell in the heavens or the new earth where evil will be absent. You know that. I don’t have to write that for you to know because you read the Bible just like me.

We are attacked. We lose those we love like David because death is still very much among us. There are more martyrs today than there was in the first century. There’s a reason the Bible says broad is the way that leads to destruction, but narrow is the way that leads unto righteousness. Sin separates us from God and each other, and it’s only when a human being takes personal responsibility for their sin that they come near God. That doesn’t mean that human beings don’t sin when they choose God. Look at King David. He was guilty of murder and adultery, yet he was still called a man after God’s own heart. The thing that separates a believer from an unbeliever is the desire to change after they have sinned. Christ Jesus was not afraid to love the unlovable, but he wasn’t afraid to call them out on choosing not to love. His primary message was love, but love doesn’t mean we condone everything another human being chooses to practice. Jesus showed that time and again.

There’s a price to be paid in choosing to follow Jesus. David knew that price, and I think that’s why he passed from this earth so peacefully. Jesus paid a debt He didn’t owe to pay a debt we could never pay to wash our sins away, and even though that Sunday School song might be ringing in your head right now it’s far deeper than that. I don’t know if David is in direct conversation with the Father, Son and Spirit, but I suspect there are angels around him asking and answering questions. If God wanted me to know what David was experiencing right now He’d reveal it to me, but since He isn’t I’m content to go on in faith showing others what David showed me about Christ. Hebrews 11.1 is appropriate here.

Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

The evidence for a supreme good and evil being is overwhelming. The good one is called Father, and the evil one is known as Satan.

David chose to follow the Father.

I hope you will too.