To Live is Christ to Die is Gain (Mr. Jorge Vencel Graveside Service)

This message was for Mr. Jorge Vencel's graveside service today at Mount Hope Cemetery in San Diego per request of his wife Carmen and daughter Sandra, whom Pastor Grant worked with ministering to Jorge and them during their time with Apreva Hopsice which Pastor Grant works for as a FT Chaplain. The message reflected the Bible verse Mr. Vencel kept saying to Mrs. Vencel preparing to go to heaven, Philippians 1:21: "To live is Christ, to Die is gain." While it is better for a Christian's fellow saints to stay and live and serve them, it is far better for that Christian to die and live with Christ. It is normal for a Christian to desire to die on earth and live with Jesus in heaven. The poem quoted at the beginning (learned of through Apreva Hospice (BHS) training): I Am Standing Upon The Seashore. I am standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my side, spreads her white sails to the moving breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other. Then, someone at my side says, "There, she is gone" Gone where? Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast, hull and spar as she was when she left my side. And, she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port. Her diminished size is in me -- not in her. And, just at the moment when someone says, "There, she is gone," there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, "Here she comes!" And that is dying... See https://allpoetry.com/I-Am-Standing-Upon-The-Seashore.