Death is a Reality

This morning I went to my grandma’s funeral.

I don’t go to many funerals these days, and it’s been awhile since I've been to one at all. I’m at a stage in life when I don’t often think of death. People my age are rarely confronted with the reality of death (unless of course we happen to get really sick in India:  http://biolansinindia.blogspot.com/2011/08/living-to-die.html).

Not many of my friends are dying as twenty-somethings, nor do young adults have as many funerals to attend as my grandparents have. Our bodies are strong and healthy, our futures are bright, our ambitions are huge. We are entering a stage of life when we feel like we can take on the world. We can make lots of money. We feel invincible.

But we’re not.

We are limited and finite and mortal… only a breath upon this earth.

Today I watched as my aunts wept loudly over the empty body of their mother, Jean Alice Murray Mumme, lying peacefully in a casket. I observed seven daughters and a son mourn deeply at the passing of the one who brought them into the earth and loved them and nurtured them. One of her children is my own mother.

I was uncomfortable.

Death is not easy to grasp. It’s painful. strange. confusing. sometimes unbearable, sometimes unbelievable. But death is real, and I want to live my life well in light of it.

A Model of Faithfulness

I stood next to my grandpa as my father and the other pallbearers brought the casket to the hearse. “Sixty-five years,” he muttered in shock. “Sixty-five years… ,” he repeated with words trailing off in disbelief. His wife is now gone.

Yes, my mom’s parents were married 65 years, celebrating their anniversary on October 11. My grandma celebrated her 84th birthday on November 2, 2012, the day before she passed away.

My grandfather lovingly cared for his bride through these last tough years of her being afflicted with Alzheimer’s. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to watch your wife and partner of so many years decline to such a state, but he faithfully fed her by hand and was always by her side—to the very end. He simply said, “I just kept thinking of 65 years ago when we said for better or for worse, sickness or health; there was nothing else to do.”

I admire my grandpa for his fulfilled marriage vow. Robert Mumme is an example to follow.

Peace for the Righteous

Death would be much harder to accept without a belief of eternity.

This morning at breakfast I opened up my Bible to read Isaiah 57. I only got through two verses before one of my aunts sat down with me, but those verses were pointedly relevant for the day:

The devout are taken away, and no one understands

that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil.

Those who walk uprightly enter into peace;

They find rest as they lie in death.

Isaiah 57:1-2                                      

The words describe the righteous—those who follow God and obey His commands—are at peace when they die. The words of the Bible resound with truth as they present me with comfort. I can be joyful for my grandmother along with the rest of my family; for we believe she is in a better place.

As I scooped a shovel of dirt on top of my grandma’s casket, I had confidence that this is not the final goodbye. My grandma is now free from a world in which her mind wasted away and her body failed her. This world was not her eternal home, and she looked forward to the day when she would go on to heaven.

How about you?

The chapter in Isaiah ends: “‘There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked.’”

I don’t know about you, but the idea of judgment scares me. I want to be among the righteous, for whom death is rest from the weariness of this world. I do not want to be counted among the wicked.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” says Romans 3:23, and Romans 6:23 continues the gloomy truth: “For the wages of sin is death…” Everyone has sinned—all are wicked—and God must punish sin because He is righteous and perfect. When we die, we will face judgment.

Yet Romans 6:23 continues on to say, “…but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Yes, the beautiful truth that we Christians deeply believe is, despite our own rebellion against God’s law, God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son into the world that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

I am confident my grandmother accepted redemption from her sin and is now with her beloved Savior. I am confident I have received the gift of salvation from Jesus’ death on a cross for me.

How about you? Don’t let this be tacky. It’s not just pithy Christian language. This is the truth for which millions of people throughout the scope of history have given their lives. Think about it. I pray you believe and understand. Consider deeply, for death is fast upon us.