If we are going to discuss death, we need to have some
background on the Christian point of view concerning death. In my faith, it is not the ‘forever good-bye’. It is, rather, punishment for sins committed
against God, but a death sentence that has been commuted to life eternal by the
death and resurrection of someone else.
I stand up at funerals and share the promise of the gospel,
that in Christ, death is but a doorway, a way station, until such time as we
are all united once again. It kind of
sucks for those who are not Christians, but I am the advocate of a God of
Mercy, not a God of Vengeance, so I think it takes a whole lot to take on death
as punishment (but it can be done).
But unlike some of my colleagues, I do not share this as a
scare tactic for mourners to get their act together before they get laid
out. I share this as hope for somewhere
down the line, somewhere through the grieving process, somewhere when the
feelings of the death have begun to integrate back into the person’s being.
I will be the first to admit, it doesn’t do much for the
shock moments of death, for the traumas that follow losing someone, especially
if you are carrying the burden of perhaps doing something that could have saved
their life. But it carries the
possibilities that things can be okay again, someday.
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