We are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. (James 4:14)
This truth has been proven to me again and again in the last two weeks. Proven by the loss of a co-worker and friend, Ruth Bowen. Proven by the loss of a wonderful man of God and the father of one of my dear middle school girls, John Kelly. Proven by a snowboarding accident that resulted in a brain injury of one of my dear friends, Beth Born. Proven as I gently washed the face and removed the lines from the body of a woman who had just died in the hospital, who a sliver of time earlier had been speaking and smiling and living.
When people around us pass away or devastating accidents occur to people close to us, our minds often recount our last interactions with them. I remember talking about church and spiritual struggles with Ruth in the hallway by the nurse’s station during one of the many weekends we worked together. I remember talking with John when he picked up Shea after Girls Group. I remember sharing the delight of snowboarding and a hug with Beth right before I left the mountain early, right before she slammed into a tree. I remember the reports of the beautiful smile and laughter of the woman in the hospital now lying in a grave.
It is stunningly clear: we are a mist.
The waves of mourning come for those of us remaining in this foreign land. A constant deluge for a time. Then in ebbs and flows. But rarely do the waves altogether cease. Rarely does the ripple flatline.
But the pain is only allotted to us, as visitors of this earth and runners of this life race, until we have reached the goal (Philippians 3). And this will be a crazy joyous day, just sayin.
A few thoughts regarding this thing we humans call death:
1. In C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, two devils seek to weaken a new Christian. One of them, the senior devil, warns the other:
“ They, of course, do tend to regard death as the prime evil, and survival as the greatest good. But that is because we have taught them to do so.... The long, dull, monotonous years of middle-aged prosperity or middle-aged adversity are excellent campaigning weather. You see, it is so hard for these creatures to persevere…. The truth is that the Enemy, having oddly destined these mere animals to life in His own eternal world, has guarded them pretty effectively from the danger of feeling at home anywhere else.” (chapter 28)
2. In Phillipians, the book known as the epistle of joy, Paul says so very clearly, “I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in death.” But don’t end there. Why in the world would Paul want to suffer? “To attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
3. John 16:33 – “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
And so we continue to suffer. Pain – in countless ways – continues to scald us and wash over us. But not for long, people. Not for long. J
