It’s the refrain from a song I recall, “this world is not my home, I’m just a’ passing through.” One of the things that brings this to mind is I hear more and more people even younger than I am are wishing for the past, for things that gave some assurance things were good and would get better, hope for the future rather than the chaotic dangers and aimlessness in the face of so much uncertainty today. And there are no leaders on the horizon that give us any assurance they are capable of dealing with these dangers and are anything other than aimless themselves apart from feathering their own nests and “the public be damned!” no matter what.

Think life wasn’t simpler in the 30s and 40s? Then watch some of the films of those times. Think we weren’t optimistic about life and a future here in America back in the 50s? Watch some of the films of that era. And no, not the noir films but the ones that were upbeat and positive.

My greatest advantage at my age is being able to remember back far enough and to have experienced enough of good and loving people in my life to be able to recall the good times I have enjoyed in the past, a past that included being taught good manners and respect for my elders, Bible instruction and the basic principles of doing right rather than choosing to do wrong. I had good people serving as moral mentors as a child, people that lived what they taught me as a child encouraging the nurture of a tender conscience.

Another advantage I have at my age is being able to accept those things I am powerless to change, and being able to speak my mind heedless of those that disagree. You see, I’m no longer in the business of youth attempting to persuade anyone of my point of view. I’ve reached that happy state of the aged where live and let live suits me just fine. Sure I will continue to voice my disgust with politicians and others that are so obviously selfish they will lie, cheat, and steal at every opportunity, but I no longer do so in the hope it will cause the leopard to change its spots.

The few dear friends I have permit my crotchets even as I do theirs, and we often agree to disagree about some issues. But a seemingly curious thing seems to come with our advancing years, and that is our willingness to admit of some things we used to leave in some hidden drawer of our minds but are now willing to share with one another openly. One thing those my age confront is the looming fact of our mortality, and in doing so things of the hereafter become of increasing interest to us.

Take the subject of ghosts and spirits. If God is a spirit then that is as real as it gets; and if true, while we can’t see God this means the things most real and powerful are unseen. For example, I recognize when something is either dead or alive but I can’t see what it is that makes the difference, nor does anything in science provide an answer to this.

But those that dismiss God and angels are really missing something good in my opinion. While I say I live with ghosts this lacks any possible definition since it is the spirits that may manifest themselves in some way as to be visible to our limited ability to see what is beyond our physical capacity to see, and it is these manifestations that have led to so many ghost stories. And while the spirits of loved ones and friends do not make themselves visible to me I have no doubt they remain with me; so it is that while I say I live with ghosts it is actually their spirits I live with. But as with God, that which is spirit and unseen is more real and powerful than anything we have the ability to see limited by these bodies of clay.

However, even as Timothy I was taught in the Scriptures as a child and learned it is the spirit that quickens, that gives life; that the flesh profits nothing, and faith remains the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. A very large part of living by faith rather than sight is this hope I have of my loved ones and friends being with me, that they have never really left at all but are with me in spirit which is far more real than the things I can see.

But of course, if we accept the spirits of God and loved ones being with us, if we accept unseen angels being about us we might accept the Devil and fallen angels, the unclean spirits and demons being quite real as well; and this only makes sense, given the history of humankind that seems plagued by these.

The teachings in the Bible concerning the things unseen have a lot of credibility in my opinion; especially those of Jesus. He must have had a lot of insight into such matters and I credit many of the things he taught about these, not only because of Jesus but because of the things I have experienced of a similar nature, things that I must credit to the workings of God and the Devil, of angels and demons, things otherwise inexplicable.

You know folks the more I think about it the more I’m convinced the Bible has it right about the “end of the age” Jesus and others spoke of, a time when men’s hearts will fail because of fear, a time of great evil such as the world has never known, even of earthquakes and pestilence unknown in the past, a time when the earth itself in bondage to corruption is said to groan and travail in pain waiting upon God to be delivered. That last easily equates with what is happening to our planet right now.

While I expect to “awaken” in the presence of God, of loved ones and friends I can’t help but feel sorry for those without such a hope, without any such anchor of the soul that will see them through the time of trouble they and this old world is in for.

Of course, the things that sustain me, things like continued communion with God, with loved ones and friends, the belief in angels and things unseen may only be the product of my own imagination and beliefs. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t trade them for anything this world has to offer. After all, “this world is not my home, I’m just a’ passing through.” And the “treasures” the song speaks of “laid up beyond the blue” are the loved ones and friends I hope to see once more “in that great, gettin’ up mornin’, in that great, gettin’ up day.”