Really, 2018?

On last weekend, I had to travel out of town for a funeral. While driving, I received a phone call that a dear family friend of mine had been tragically killed in an automobile accident… and immediately, I found myself overwhelmed with emotion. Two very different situations. Two very different people… yet sadly, the very same end. I was reminded of the writing of Psalms: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints (Psa 116:15).” As often as I have heard this scripture during funerals, the fact still remains that the beauty of death still eludes me. Being absent from the body is to be present with the Lord– I know! But what comfort is that to those that are grieving? To those that have lost friend and mother, family and grandmother? How does the grandeur of the celestial impact life here on Earth when hearts are broken and grief-stricken? How does God seeing death as precious comfort the crying and console the hurting?

Death is a part of life, but I take issue with the idea that God rejoices over the death of anyone. God wants you to die, so that you can be with Him forever? I think of the eulogy Rev. William Sloane Coffin delivered at Riverside Church when his son Alex was killed in an automobile accident. In his message, Rev. Coffin included a quote by Hemingway: “The world breaks everyone, then some become strong at the broken places.” What a beautiful musing… Perhaps the beauty does not lie in the death of the person, but in the strength that is developed in those that remain. Maybe it is the strength that is erected in life’s broken places that gives praise and honor to God.

I dare not pretend to have all of the answers, but I am learning to be grateful for the fortitude to keep on going. Face life and keep pushing forward…

jsb