New Reminders: Death

Death is sort of a taboo subject and not one we often chose to write or talk about unless someone close to us has: “Passed away, Gone to meet his maker, Is finally out of her misery, Is in a better place, Is no longer with us, Is with the angels” or one of the many other euphemisms we use for talking about death and dying.  It is not considered a polite, or even an appropriate, topic for general discussion because it brings up strong emotional feelings around the loss of someone close to us, and it is not something we relish thinking about for ourselves.  Yet it is a topic we all have to face sooner or later, either as we anticipate the death of someone we love, and that we ourselves will eventually have to deal with one way or another.

The first time we sit at the bedside with someone who is dying we can’t help contemplating our own mortality and start to come to grips with the reality that everyone dies.  Everyone either succumbs to a long slow process or is suddenly no longer alive after an accident or something like a fatal heart attack or stroke.  There is a natural fear that comes with that realization––either of what we might face after we die or of the dying process itself, or both.  My own mother who was a born again, devout Christian who had said she was looking forward to meeting Jesus and seeing all the loved ones who had gone on before her, suddenly blurted out, as she waited to die, “What if I wasn’t good enough?”  I was dumbfounded!

I reminded her of what she had taught me many years before––that no one can ever be “good enough”, and that is why God sent Jesus, who was perfect, to die in our place.  She then relaxed.  I’m not sure if it was because she then remembered that lesson or that she was reassured that I had remember it, but she died shortly thereafter with a peaceful smile on her lips saying “Oh, it’s so beautiful!”

Life itself can be more beautiful when we have the assurance of an eternal life to look forward to.  Death can be a whole lot easier and much less scary, when we know what to expect.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son to die for us so that we should not perish but have eternal life.” Romans 3:16 “If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord.  So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.” Romans 6:7