Thoughts on Life and Death

     Since the day we are born we come closer and closer to the day we die.  We all have an expiration date yet no one knows when.  It is one huge mystery - when?!  We all expect to live well into our senior years but unfortunally that is not always the case.  Sometimes the young parish as well.  I believe that when our work here on Earth is done (that God has planned for us) He will call us home.  There is a meaning behind everything whether we understand it or not.  Perhaps the reason to why a loved one dies may not be our reason to know but for someone else to know the meaning behind it.  We don't always need to understand it, but death is something we must accept. 

     I recently had my mother-in-law pass away last week on December 7.  I felt thankful to have been there - not thankful for her death but thankful to have been a part of her life.  Her adult children were by her side giving her words of comfort and reassurance as she leaves this Earth.  I watched and pictured her in yesteryears as she welcomed each child through labor and gazed upon each new baby with awe.  I envisioned her holding them as they took their first breaths in the world and now her children were there waiting for her to take her last.  There was a mournful comfort to it. 

     I came to the analogy of death being like a birth.  At one moment the unborn child is not of existence, relying solely on his mother's body for survival.  Then one unexpected day there is a little pain and discomfort and that unborn child is born into a beautiful world.  All that pain is forgotten as the mother and child stare into each other's beautiful faces.  At the time of death things are reversed.  On an unexpected date and time there may be some discomfort and pain.  Once you get through the "labor" of dying you are welcomed in Jesus' arms and the beauty of Heaven makes you forget all about the suffering from before.  It is a birth into death. 

     William Wallace, a character from the movie Braveheart, said it best with this line, "Death comes to us all."  There is no cure from death.  No matter what studies the medical field does we still will all die at the end.  We can eat all the right foods, live an active and healthy life and we still die.  There is no escape from that fact.  It is true that by making good choices in our life we can prolong our life a bit longer but death is still going to greet us eventually. 

     At times when I look at the elderly I try to picture them being young and carefree.  I picture them without the wrinkles, gray hair, and without their slow gestures.  I imagine them being a young child running around playing happily and carefree.  I picture them wooing their spouse by them getting butterflies over that first phone call for a date and feeling wonderfully beautiful.  Then I look at the youth running around and wonder if they realize that one day they, too, will get old and not move at a quick pace anymore.  Their hair will gray or may even fall out.  Their skin will wrinkle and sag.  Things that seem important as a young adult will seem trivial to a person with several decades behind them. 

     So should we just give up on life and roll over and wait to die?  NO!  That is not what I am saying at all.  We should live life and enjoy the gifts that God gave to us all.  He gave us the gift of life to live in His glory.  God has a purpose for us.  He has given us a meaning.  We need to give our elders respect while teaching the youth to be respectful to others.  We need to remember those who have died and enjoy the moments now that we have with our loved ones.  Once that those moments pass we may never get another chance to let them know how much they mean in our lives.