This body, this life, this death
Author: Tobin Crenshaw
While the Bible compares death to a bee sting (1 Corinthians 15:55), those left behind know that the pain can feel more like a devastating blow from which one wonders if they will ever recover.
Psychologists say that grief is so painful in part because it brings such an abrupt change to our daily routine. Though Newton’s law may assure us that matter can neither be created nor destroyed, it just changes form, in reality we may know that while in a sense our loved ones are still with us we also know they are somewhere else.
As the final season of the comedy Scrubs came to a close the show took on a more melancholy feel. In one of the last episodes J.D. and Turk were discussing why they became doctors. In a moment of openness they both shared they entered the medical field because they were terrified of death and wanted to find some answers.
Most people are not as honest about their fears. As Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) once said, “Being unable to cure death, sin, and ignorance, men have decided, in order to be happy, not to think about such things.”
In 1969 when Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong walked on the moon an amazing event took place that was not broadcast over the airwaves. Aldrin had brought with him a thimble sized communion set.
He read a verse of scripture and then proceeded in a moment of gratitude and worship. He would later write, “I ate the tiny Host and swallowed the wine. I gave thanks for…the Sea of Tranquility…to think: the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the very first food eaten there, were the communion elements.”
Communion, a symbol that there is more to life than just what we can see and feel, a representation of an eternal hope that Heaven is our home.
Few have understood the pain of life and death more than those who have lost a child. In gut-wrenching and in hope infused detail Mary Beth Chapman and Steven Curtis Chapman share of their own such story in the book Choosing to SEE.
Gracefully, they also share of intimate and incredible miracles that happened in the wake of the tragedy of losing their own child.
Steven shares in the song “Beauty Will Rise” the following words of faith: “It would take our breath away to see the beauty that He’s made out of the ashes.”
I highly encourage you to read their life changing book, no matter what losses or challenges you have faced.
And finally, I have always found Peter Hiatt’s words some of the most inspiring when he said, “They’ll drop you in a grave and you’ll feel a touch, you’re not insane. Now you’re sane. A voice will say, ‘Friend, let’s get out of here! I beat this place.’ And you’ll see him.”
Perhaps as we see that death has been defeated we can more fully live and breathe with gratitude and peace every moment of life.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/spirituality-articles/this-body-this-life-this-death-4772031.html
About the Author
A former pastor, Tobin holds both a B.A. and an M.A. in theology. Having traveled widely in the Marine Corps and as a graduate student, Tobin has spent the past 15 years gathering some of the world’s most powerful life-changing truths. He’s the author of The Life That Is Really Life: How Biblical Truth Can Transform Your Spiritual, Emotional, Physical and Relational Health which is available on Amazon and at his website twominutesermon.com
