The other night, my husband was watching one of the many Star Trek shows out there (don't ask me which one). I wasn’t completely paying attention, but suddenly there was a line in the show that made me tune in.
They were talking about what emotion most people feel right before they die, and they said it wasn’t what you would expect. It wasn’t anger or grief or regret. It was surprise. As though people never really expect to die. As though we’re all somehow thinking we are going to live forever.
It made me pause. I certainly know we say that about youth. Part of the reason why young people do foolish things is because they have this mindset that nothing can hurt them, that they are going to live forever. (Conversely, part of the reason why the suicide rate is high among young people is because they think their pain will last forever, and they can't stand the thought.)
It seems as though it isn't until middle age or our older years that we start to contemplate our own mortality. But does death still come as a surprise to us? Perhaps it does. Even knowing it is coming may not prepare us adequately for when it actually does come.
Sometime back I heard a preacher say the reason why we grieve death is because we were never meant to die. We were created to live forever, much like the angels were. However, when we embraced sin, sin brought death, just as God promised it would. Now it's our present reality.
Our whole world is dying. All we know is the circle of life: birth, life, death. We understand this, and yet, we often experience grief and anger when others die and fear around our own pending death. Could it be true that it was never meant to be this way?
I suspect we are the only living beings on this Earth who feel this burst of surprise when death comes for us. Many living creatures show signs of a survival instinct, an instinct which (sometimes) helps them get out of dangerous situations. But is that driven by a fear of death, or rather by a deeper, subconscious response programmed into them? Do animals contemplate their own coming demise? Does it frighten them? Worry them?
I doubt it. Perhaps the reason why we find ourselves in contemplation and fear and concern, is because we were created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). God is an eternal being - who always has been, always is, always will be. Death is as foreign to Him as sometimes it feels to us. The Bible says eternity was written on our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11). We know there is more to our existence than birth, life, death. We feel it in our blood, in our bones, in our hearts, in our souls.
Death was never meant to be our reality. Of course, for those of us who have faith in God and in His promises, we believe our physical death is not the end of our existence. We believe in the everlasting life of the soul and the spirit with God. We believe in His promises for a new body and a new earth. One could even say that our physical death is a rebirthing or a passing over into true life. The life we were always meant to have, before sin got in the way.
Consider what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:54-57, "When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?' The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
We have victory in Jesus! Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary summarizes these verses this way: "The sting of death is sin; but Christ, by dying, has taken out this sting; he has made atonement for sin, he has obtained remission of it."
We have hope in the everlasting because Jesus was the first to be raised. He was raised back to life and ascended into the Heavens, never to die again. He had a forever body which could eat and drink and touch and be touched but also passed through walls (sounds cool to me).
Sometimes when people have a near death experience or a brush with death, afterwards their purpose and meaning become more defined. They prioritize things differently. They understand what is truly important in a new way.
Perhaps, all of us could benefit from that type of vision - even without having a near death experience! We could benefit from a refocusing of our priorities and how we spend our time and our resources and what we fix our eyes upon.
Sometimes you see these types of questions online: if you knew this was your last day on earth, what would you do? People say things like, give away all my belongings or sell everything so I can go and travel or spend time with my loved ones.
What would you do? What would you do differently to leave your mark behind? What would you do as a Christian about to face their maker?
These are the things we should be asking ourselves more often. We should live, grateful for every day of life God grants us, while also remembering it will one day end.
It isn’t a surprise that death is coming for all of us. We do not know when or where or how, but God knows. We trust Him with our eternity, maybe we should trust Him with our present as well.
How can we spend each day we are given in a way pleasing to Him? How can we better use our time to love Him more and to love others better?
If this was your last day on earth, what would you do differently?
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