A Day of Remembrance and Reckoning

"I will require a reckoning of every human life," says God. (Genesis 9:5)

God requires a reckoning of every human life - those lives we take, which, thank God, I don't, as well as our own life.  Those lives we take... I feel like I watch a lot of killing on TV - NCIS, NCIS:LA, South Park, Alias, Castle, the last movie I saw in the theater, "The Family,"... practically every non-reality TV show I watch (and the only reality shows I watch are on The Food Network).  Yet the closest I've been to someone taken unexpectedly from me was Uncle Bob, my godfather.  He was probably in his 50's, if I had to guess, and it was a surprise.  Yet it's not a surprise that it's September and I'm thinking of him.  Seems to happen every September.  September was the month he died, in 1994.  Almost 20 years.  We had just seen him in June that year, he came down to North Carolina for my confirmation.  I'm pretty sure my sister and I made fun of him, he was a little socially awkward.  But his death was a surprise.  A phone call at 7 a.m. as we were getting ready for work and school one day.  His maid found him unconscious and he'd been that way for 2-3 days, alone in his house, ethanol alcohol poisoning from which he never recovered.  Suicide.  How does God reckon that?  Does he balance it with all the good things Uncle Bob did?  Setting up college trust funds for my sisters and me and seven others?  The charity and good works and generosity?  My sisters and I were the only kids at his funeral.  Or was miserable depression the last word on his life?  What's the reckoning?  He bought us an encyclopedia set, and nice dresses, and educational toys and books, a globe, and jean jackets when they were in style in the 1980s.  What's the last word?  Two divorces?  Haunted by his parents?  No living relative closer than a second cousin who lived in England?  For my confirmation (in the Episcopal Church) he gave me The Book of Common Prayer in Spanish.  How'd he know???  I'd only had three years of middle school Spanish at that point.  He must've been inspired by the Holy Spirit.  And yet three months later he OD'd on alcohol.  What's the reckoning?  Is he in heaven?  Did God have the last word on his life?  

"We pray for those who have died."  (Prayers of the People, The Book of Common Prayer, p. 386)