The pine box

It was a busy day and my patient was a young man struggling to cope with his life threatening illness. At the same time all over the news was the continuing coverage of the terrible tradgedy at the Parkhill dam in Cambridge.The young boy's body needed to be retrieved from the rushing Grand River  and now so did the police officer who had attempted the initial rescue.My patient (Sam) watched this coverage on his little bedside T.V.with great interest and curiosity. He then said to me,"I wish I could die like that ...It seems like a more heroic way to die".He questioned his impact on his life on earth and needed to talk about it.Thankfully a fellow co-worker sensed the gravity of this conversation and filled in for me while Sam shared his heart with me.He wished that he could have been a somebody in life and the conversation went on. I then asked him what troubled him most and he then asked me if I thought that God could forgive him? I didn't ask him what he needed forgiveness for but replied that I did believe in a forgiving God and that yes I believed He would forgive him. He then said ,"even if it is something really bad?" I kind of wondered just what was so bad but knew it was not for me to know. He told me that his sister beleived the same as I did , so I encouraged him to talk with her more about this.He was discharged home a few days later but returned again in one months time, only now he was in the final stages of his illness and struggling for each breath. Talking was difficult.I was assigned to Sam and somehow knew it wasn't an accident. Our conversation from the previous month was not finished yet. He remembered me and our conversation  picked up as if no time had lapsed.With a smile on his face and  sense of peace in his heart he told me that I was right."Right about what?", I asked. He replied that I was right about the forgiveness thing.Sam died later that evening.I was so touched by the simple way He approached life, and the simple way He found redemption (I'm assuming with some guidance from his sister).Interesting also is the fact that another's tragedy lead to his redemption.I don't pretend to fathom God's ways or His purposes in all things but I know in my heart his handiwork was stamped all over this .I felt so touched by Sam that I attended his visititation at the Funeral home and was humbled once again . According to his wishes he lay in a pine box with a t-shirt and jeans clothing his body and a ball cap on his head. It impacted me greatly and spoke volumes about the profoundness of simplicity.