On Thursday, I finished the Eribulin chemo. Eighteen weeks of it and my body is telling me that it is time to be done. So yes, I am happy. I had an MRI in early November and it came back with "nothing is growing". That is a good result. There is a CT booked in a few days on December 23 to check of any internal changes. All is well! And on to my thought of the day .... Getting OK with Death ...
Death is the proverbial white elephant in
the room. No one wants to talk about
it. What a thing to talk about so close to Christmas! Perhaps it is the perfect time.
Christmas is our Christian cultural and
traditional celebration of Christ’s birth.
It is the greatest gift of all eternal life: a gift to human kind of
immortality. God sending his son to earth to live the perfect life, die for our
sins (John 3:16) and be resurrected so that we may live. It is the most amazing gift!
Death is something that I have had a hard time
getting my head around. I remember my
friend, Shelley, saying to me, “You have a God and beliefs. Look to them.” or when my son, who had been studying
Revelation (“[Christ has]the keys to Hades and death.” Rev 1:18) saying, “It is
perfectly ok when people die because God takes care of it.” and tears instantly
came to my eyes.
It was not until, while deep in thought that
I realized as humans we are created in the image of God. (Genesis 1:27) God is immortal and therefore it is only
natural that we want to hold onto life.
We instinctually want to live. I
appreciated my cousin’s explanation of death as a graduation from our earthly
existence. Death is just a fact of being
done on earth. We have come to a point where our human existence can go no
further and we are ready for the amazing next thing.
So we die and then what? God does have a
plan.
1. Death is a deep
sleep.
“The dead know nothing.” Ecclesiastics 9:5
“There is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in
the grave where you are going.”
Ecclesiastics 9:10
“The dead do not praise the Lord”. Psalms 115:17
2.
Resurrection for the dead. Christ is coming
back.
“The hour is coming in which all who are in the graves
will hear His voice and come forth.” John 5: 28 and 29
3.
Eternal life for
those who choose to be children of God.
“Blessed by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, the an inheritance
incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for
you.” 1 Peter 1: 3 and 4
"...Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on .... that they may rest from their labours ...." Revelation 14:13
"...Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on .... that they may rest from their labours ...." Revelation 14:13
So we sleep, we are raised at the second coming and those who have chosen to follow Christ go to heaven. What about those who we leave behind? All we need to know that death is not “Good bye” but
rather “See you later”.
And God promises to be with those who mourn. “I will turn their mourning into gladness;
I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.” Jeremiah 31:13
Perhaps this is over simplified and I am not planning on dying anytime
soon. So let us live our lives as
students of life with the confidence and with the hope that God has a plan for
everyone’s salvation and release from the grip of death. If you want to read
further on this subject I encourage you to read more at this link for more thorough Bible based explantation.
Praise the Lord for all that he does! May blessings pour from heaven upon you all! and Merry Christmas!
