An Enemy to be Feared?

My best friend from my college days died a few days ago. He had been battling cancer for a number of years. He and I were the same age, he only a few months older. Of the two of us, he was the more athletic, the more energetic, the more full of life. People like him aren't supposed to get sick...aren't supposed to die early. Yet he did, and he has. Death doesn't discriminatee.

It's hard to wrap my mind around the thoughts my friend must have had these last days and weeks of his life; the fear he must have experienced, the uncertainly of how long he had left and finally the resignation and realization that his battle was ending. He was a Christian, with a hope, or rather an assurance, of a life hereafter. I know it gave Him comfort.

Death is a difficult concept to grasp for most of us. It's hard to imagine not being here, existing, breathing. It's hard to imagine no consciousness, no being. God tells us in His word that He has put eternity in our hearts. Maybe that's why the concept of death is so hard for us to fathom. It's not a natural state for us. It's foreign to the purpose for which we have been created. Our natural state is to be alive, to be eternal. That, God's word teaches us, is our destiny.

Well meaning Christians tell us we shouldn't fear death. I think they are wrong. Death is to be feared. Death is darkness, death is separation from all that we know, both physical and spiritual. There's nothing positive about death. I think perhaps the most dreaded words uttered by God in the entire Bible were when He said to Adam and Eve "...you shall surely die." Of course, It's possible our ancient parents didn't understand the meaning of it as do we, their children. They had not as yet experienced the death of someone they loved, someone they cared about. They weren't yet fully aware of their own vulnerability. Had they fully understood it, perhaps they may have thought twice before sinking their teeth into that piece of fruit, no matter how tempting.

The Bible says that a day will come when the earth will give up its' dead. Death itself will be thrown in the lake of fire. We're told it's the final enemy that will be destroyed when our Savior returns. Just think of it; no more suffering, no more fear, no more uncertainty, no more mourning, no more tragic endings.

I'd like to be there when it is finally put down, as it gasps its' last breath. It deserves all it gets. It's taken some good people in its' time. A few of them, like as my freind, I knew and loved. I'm looking forward to getting them, and him, back. I take joy in knowing it's days are numbered.

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"I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways. I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word." Psalms 119:15 - 16

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