We’re all familiar with that moment when we just can’t keep our eyes open another second, some may fight it, (and I am one of them who has) but in that next moment we’ve betrayed our resolve, we’ve dropped into slumber… It happens without our permission and without even our knowledge; then we awaken to laugh at how needed that rest really was, and how much better we really feel! Alsop reminds us that death is the same. You and I can fight it if we wish, but it’s coming none the less. And yet, this thing about fighting death… I think we do fight and rage against it until we somehow know intuitively that it’s time to lay down the fight and allow God the clear path to do the rest.
Sometimes that letting go can lead to a miraculous recovery! Sometimes God just wants us to get out of the way, so we can feel Him do what He and only He can do for his children. (And, when I say children, that is all of us, whether we see that He’s there or not.) Other times, it really is a sign or some kind of knowledge sent to us that it’s time to come home to Him.
When our son recently passed to God, he was fighting for himself right up to the moment that the anesthesiologist put him out. To sleep. And, in that sleep his heart collapse, God called him home and he did not look back to this life. But let’s be clear. He was NOT asleep when God took him from this life… He was fully awake and leaving this earthly class room, for a new life. The word death does not mean sleep; it means passed from this life (and fully awake in the next). You can doubt my words, you can laugh at them, you can even think I’m nuts if you wish. But what I’ve said is still true and remains true throughout time. Death means a passage… A passage away from the physical life.
I am very excited for our son, for he knew full well the meaning of death. Now he is living it. Passage. He lived a fully good life, so clearly he was happily expectant for what lies ahead of him.
One of my friends who died on an OR table, who went to heaven and returned to his earthly body, told me that he didn’t want to come back here… It was that wonderful. But her was sent back because it wasn’t his time to leave… He didn’t have “the ticket” to leave, so back to his earthly body he came. When our son passed, I recalled my friend’s words: “It’s easy to die, but it’s hard to live.” We, who don’t have that ticket, must soldier on and live good lives until our time to pass… So let us all continue doing just that!
Questions: What good act did each of us do today? How have we lived of others, before satisfying yourselves (for this is part of living a good life). If we don’t know the answer, let us take time away from our shopping, “Interneting”, and working, and let us discover this most important information. Make no mistake that God sees our lives and how we live. When He hands us the ticket to passage, our destination is decided by how we lived. It’s never too late to be good. Never.
May you and I continue life’s trek in earnest.
Best…
Carolyn Thomas Temple