FACING DEATH

            On television we watched as Malaysian Airlines informed families of those on Flight MH370 that all lives were lost. Some fell down, shouted aloud, and responded with other outward signs of inconsolable grief. I was not surprised but was troubled by it. Of course, I don’t know how I would react if I believed I would never see my loved one again in life or in death, if I believed they would return to earth reincarnated into a person, animal or thing I would not recognize. Of course different societies or cultures have different ways of confronting grief.

            But I have in person seen this kind of reaction. Being a pastor in a small community (Reform, AL) I was at times called by personnel at our small hospital to come and be with a family who had no pastor of their own. I remember one vivid scene when the patient passed away and the family acted the same as the Chinese. They swooned, hollered aloud, beat on furniture and engaged in all sorts of expressions. Nothing I could say was of comfort to them. They were inconsolable.

            As the family was carrying on, an attending nurse observed to me, “It makes so much difference when people have faith and when they don’t.” I am sure she had seen it often.

            When people have faith, accept that in Jesus we have everlasting life, that we who believe in Jesus will see each other after physical death in the place he has prepared for us; facing the death of a loved one is so much easier. We remember the words of Jesus, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in me, though he is dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11:25-26)

            I add the question that Jesus asked,”do you believe this?”

 

Grace and Peace