Musings On Death

I've been thinking about life and death.While most people view thoughts on life to be quite joyous, pondering death seems to have taken a bad rap.

Ask a teen to draw a picture of death, and I'll bet you many of them will scrawl skeletons, blood-soaked weapons, decayed bodies, and other morbid artifacts that are typically shown in most Hollywood horror flicks. How accurate a mental image is this, though?

As I am now a woman in my forties, I have come to better appreciate life. While it is my hope and desire to live to a ripe old age, no one ever knows for certain when their number will be called. I try to live my days well, ever thankful for the time the Lord has already given me on this beautiful planet, and grateful for my health, friends and loved ones.

Interestingly, even though I am still quite young and in excellent health, I have already made peace with death. I know it is unavoidable, so the best I can do is accept its inevitability and think optimistically about it. After all, what most people fear about deathis its uncertainty.

From the moment we take our first breath of life as new born babe, sickness, disease, injury and death is a possibility we face every day.  We've all read the stories where some man is taking his morning jog, and bam!  He falls over from a heart attack. Or what about the eighteen year old female who was just diagnosed with AIDS, or the mother of five children whose Multiple Sclerosis is so bad that she can no longer physically care for her children? Not only are we uncertain about how and when we will die, LIFE, itself, is an uncertainty! For example, we marry with every intention of being blissfully happy together forever, but sometimes, things simply don't turn out that way, or we lose our job, trip and break an ankle, and, well, I think you get the picture. In fact, statistically, LIFE is much more unpredictable than death!

When my time comes, I will look death straight in the eye and spit at it, and while I am doing that, I will be reaching out to the good Lord to lead me safely and gently back home where I belong in His love and care.

My faith allows me to have confidence in my salvation, but what about those people who do not know God's goodness?

Rather than ponder death, let us be glad for LIFE, which includes God's promise of eternal life to those who believe in Him.

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Contributed by Melanie Schurr (Copyright (c)2003 Melanie Schurr) Melanie Schurr is author of "Ecstatic Living Ecstatic Loving: How to have more peace and joy in marriage, and life in general by walking in harmony with God," and "Son Salutations: A refreshing collection of modern inspirations for those who seek God each day." For more information, visit her web page at www.angelfire.com/mi/melschurr