Jenna, the daughter of some dear family friends just died a few
hours ago after battling stomach cancer for some time. She was 23.
I’m sitting here crying but I don’t
know for exactly what reason. It’s tragic that a young woman with such
a promising future should have it taken from her for no apparent reason. And I
can only imagine what her family is going through at this moment. The loss, the
grief, the questions. I would be a mess if it were my brother or one of my
parents. A complete mess. But that’s not why I’m crying.
I suppose it’s natural when something like this
hits close to home to spend more time than usual thinking about death,
eternity, and the true reason for life on Earth. Hollywood has freely
speculated on the concept of death and life after it, my favorite one being the
film “Meet Joe Black.” I don’t consider its take
on the concept to be realistic, but it comes close to asking the important
questions.
So what are the important questions? I don’t
have a definitive answer, but I have decided on what the two most important
questions for me are: 1) Where does life begin and end? and 2) Is God
really good all the time?
If you are unfamiliar with authentic Christianity, it may be
hard to wrap your brain around what I’m about to say. But hear me out.
I don’t spend enough time thinking about
Heaven. I know I’m going there when I die, I know it’s
fantastic, and I know I’ll spend way more time there than I
ever will here (on Earth). Still, I don’t think about it a ton. Why? I have no
respectable answer to that question. Clearly I’m too focused on
natural rather than spiritual reality.
I do however spend quite a bit of time thinking about my own
death. It’s disconcerting for me to not know how or when I’m
going to die. My dramatic mind thinks up a number of horrific ways I could go.
I don’t want to die one of these violent deaths, but at the same
time I can’t truly visualize myself dying a peaceful death at a ripe
old age. I don’t know if it’s a legitimate premonition or just my
own morbidness, but I’ve always thought I’d
never make it past 50. You’d think that with this prospect I’d
be one of those carpe diem people. But life is something I take for granted.
All the time.
Please don’t feel depressed. I’m
getting to the good stuff.
Life, eternal life, starts the moment you give your life
to Jesus. And it never stops. It just keeps going. Death is merely a door. And Jesus
has always been the point.
Also, God is good. All the time. I struggle with the fact
that I don’t see powerful miracles happening. The Bible is full of
documented healings and demonstrations of power, and since I absolutely believe
that God is the same today, we should reasonably still be seeing the same class
of miracles. (Note: There are miracles happening today, just not nearly
as many in the Western world, the reason for which is a whole other issue and
not one I will expound upon here).
But my point is that I, and Christian believers in general,
often think about God in a completely erred light. To take the example of the
miracle of resurrection, what if it wasn’t a matter of Jesus
deciding to not allow this miracle to happen, no matter how much we
prayed for it to? What if He gave the person standing at Heaven’s
door the choice between returning to Earth with a restored physical body and
staying in Heaven with Him? After tasting the splendor and majesty of Heaven,
who wouldn’t choose the latter?
So really, when Jesus is the ultimate destination, you can’t
not win. There were two options for Jenna: either the Lord would do a miracle
and restore her completely from her sickness, or He would take her to be with
Him for eternity. Either way, she’d win.
And I think that is why I’m crying. Because
in the midst of the sadness, I am overwhelmed by and in awe of the goodness of
Jesus. None of the events make sense in light of natural thinking. None of them. But when I gaze upon who Jesus
is and think about the true nature and purpose of life, the life that HE gave
us, it’s impossible not to feel joy.
Today, Jenna won.
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