One look at the title of the blog entry originally posted in January of 2008, and I knew it would be this week’s recycled post. For the past three weeks, death has been on my mind. Not because someone is dying. Because I’m writing the section of Different Dream Parenting about death. Not just death, but the death and children. Not fun.
I feel like a hypocrite tackling the subject since both my children are living. But often while writing, and again today while reading through this old post, I find reassurance in my father’s life and my son’s early years. Those experiences taught me to think about death, and those thoughts are the foundation of what I’m writing now, as this recycled post shows.
Do You Ever Think About Death? – Recycled
“Do you ever think about death?” A friend asked the question in an email this morning. He thinks his son, who has been ill for a very long time, may be dying.
Yes, I told my friend, I think about death every day. It started when I was a kid, and I looked at pictures of my dad in his younger days – showing cattle, playing football, goofing around with his friends. That young man didn’t look like my dad. My dad sat in a wheelchair, weakened by multiple sclerosis. He grew weaker for thirty-eight years before his body died, but even as a kid, I knew that little bits of him died every single day.
When my son was born, my husband and I confronted death often. It almost tore me apart until God showed me the depths of His love for our baby, and I learned to hope in His promises.
Sure, I think of death every day. But I think a lot more about life when I face choices about what I believe and what I do based on my beliefs. Will I concentrate on the little bits of me that die every day or will I focus on the new life I receive? Will I fear death or love life? Will I ignore evidence of God at work in or will I acknowledge and submit to it?
As I think about death and life, the truth becomes clear. I can’t stop death. But I can choose to live in a way that honors the gift of life, the life God gave my father, the life he’s given my son, and the life of my friend’s child.
Every day, I think about death. But I choose hope.
