Jesus said . . . “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though they die.” John 11:25 (CEB)
Someone I don’t know is dying, affecting me profoundly. She’s let me and her thousands of blog followers behind the scenes in the emotional and spiritual process of saying a Jesus-enriched good-bye.
The medical community exhausted its resources for her. Jesus hasn’t exhausted His, but at this moment is being most lavish with His remarkable resource of peace-when-death-is-imminent.
She’s surrounded by friends and family, a caring husband, little ones who understand way too much about what’s happening to Mommy. I am acutely aware that as I write these words, she may be drawing her last breath of earth-air, that poor substitute for all that lies ahead for her. I wrote to her on a day when her blog reported her as fading. I’d hoped she—and I—could take comfort in the scene in my kitchen.
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My husband had just brought me a bright bouquet of fuchsia daisy mums. They brought a stunning pop of joy to a string of gray days. The fuchsia dye leached into the water in the clear glass vase, turning the liquid a startling pink. The mums faded, but they faded exquisitely, leaving petals of white with fuchsia streaks and others with delicate pink. Beautiful when vibrant. Beautiful when being drained of color.
That’s the wonder of the life Christ came to give us. The Jesus life—beautiful when in its prime, and expressing an even more delicate beauty when that life is about to transition to the eternal one Jesus died to offer us. Beauty upon beauty. Grace upon grace.
FAITH STEP: During the process of living, it’s easy to forget to thank Jesus for what He did to change the face of dying. Become part of the groundswell of gratitude. He offers life beyond this life.
