What is the value of a life?

What is in a life? I have been feeling nostalgic and sad with the passing of Ted Kennedy. I watched the lives of the Kennedys, as most people my age did. I was 9 years old when John Kennedy was asassinated, and I remember the gravity of those days. In my mind, as I was growing up, the beginning of the Cold War as well as the death of President Kennedy was the end of my feeling secure in my little world and the beginning of my realization that the world was a big, scarey place. My family was glued to the TV most of the 60's and 70's, with the death of both Kennedey's and Martin Luther King,and all of the riots, the Vietnam War, the student protests, and finally with Watergate. What I remembered about Ted Kennedy, before yesterday, was that he was the youngest of the Kennedy's, that he was involved in a vague scandal at Chappaquidick in which a young woman...not his wife...was drowned, and that my husband played at his second wedding 17 years ago! Not until I listened to all of the tributes yesterday did I realize the contribution that Senator Kennedy made to both his family and his country or the accomplished generation of children--both his own and his brothers', that he raised. I didn't realize that he had a strong faith in God. I didn't know he was responsible for the minimum wage, COBRA and worked hard for health care reform. I was vaguely aware of his political leanings, but I didn't realize his passion for helping the poor of our land. I heard a comment he made yesterday, "My mother read the Bible to us every day. She taught us that to whom much has been given, much will be expected!" I am so touched by the life that he lived! It made me cry this morning, hearing that members of his family are taking turns in a vigil sitting by his body the entire time he is in repose in the family compound. His neices and nephews spoke of him as they would have a father who died. All of this devotion does not happen unless someone lives a life that inspires it! Because I received most of my information from the TV growing up, I have patchy information about people and events, most likely centered around the most sensational news events. I am going to make it my business to study the history of my time, so that I can learn about the lives of men and women who led extraordinary lives. God created an eternal purpose in each of our unique lives. He wants us all to fulfill that purpose. I want to find out who He created me to be and what He created me to do with my life, so that, on the day I, meet Him face to face, He will say to me, "Well done, my faithful servant!" I hope that Ted Kennedy heard those words when he went home yesterday.