Clarence had been killed in a subway train accident.  At the beginning of the funeral service the pastor brilliantly expounded upon what the Bible says about the promise of the resurrection and the joys of being with Christ.  Then he came down from the platform and went over to the right side of the sanctuary, where the family was seated in the first three rows.  There, he spoke special words of comfort for them.

Then the pastor did a most unusual thing.  He went over to the open casket and spoke as though to the corpse.  He said, “Clarence!  Clarence!  There were a lot of things we should have said to you when you were alive that we never got around to saying to you.  And I want to say them now.”

What followed was a beautiful litany of memories of things that Clarence had done for many people present and for the church.  The list recalled how lovingly Clarence had served others without thought of reward.  When he had finished, the pastor looked at Clarence’s body and said, “Well, Clarence, that’s it.  I’ve got nothing else to say except this: Good night, Clarence.  Good Night!”  And with that he slammed down the lid of the casket as a stunned silence fell over the congregation.

Then a beautiful smile slowly lit up the pastor’s face and he shouted, “And I know that God is going to give Clarence a good morning!”

With that the choir rose to its feet and started singing, “On that great gettin’ up morning we shall rise, we shall rise!”  As the choir sang, everyone in the congregation rose to their feet and started singing it with them.  “On that great gettin’ up morning we shall rise, we shall rise!”  There was clapping and crying, but the tears were tears of laughter.  “Celebration had broken out in the face of death.  Something of a party that is to come had broken into that church…Death had been swallowed up in victory.”

Oh, what a gathering that will be – I hope to see you all there!

“Never ask an Eskimo how old he is,” the man said. “If you do, he will say, “I don’t know and I don’t care.” And he doesn’t. One of them told me that, and I pressed him a bit further. When I asked him the second time, he said, “Almost — that’s all.” That still wasn’t good enough for me, so I asked him “Almost what?” and he said, “Almost one day.”

Mrs. Daniels asked him if he could figure out what the Eskimo meant. He answered that he did but only after talking to another man who had lived in the Arctic Circle for about twenty years. “He was a newspaperman who had written a book about the Eskimos and their customs and beliefs. He said the Eskimos believe that when they go to sleep at night they die — that they are dead to the world. Then, when they wake up in the morning, they have been resurrected and are living a new life. Therefore, no Eskimo is more than one day old. So, that is what the Eskimo meant when he said he was ‘almost’ a day old. The day wasn’t over yet.”

“Life above the Arctic Circle is harsh and cruel, and mere survival becomes a major accomplishment,” he explained. “But, you never see an Eskimo who seems worried or anxious. They have learned to face one day at a time.”

“Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?  Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. (Matthew 6:25-31 KJV)

Have you learned how to put worry and anxiety aside and live one day at a time? Yesterday has past. Tomorrow has not arrived, but Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

When he got home, he attached a basketball hoop to a post on the front porch. Sure enough, the next morning there was a resounding “plunk” as the newspaper sailed through the hoop and landed by the door.

John never had to search for his paper again.