Death Has Been Happening A Lot

For having as big of a family as I do, I'm kinda surprised something like this hasn't happened sooner, but we lost three family members in one week exactly. Living in a culture/society that doesn't have a big connection with the concept of death, I too, had kinda forgotten about the mortality of my human physique. 

This is not an easy topic to discuss on a regular basis, nor do I think it's particularly healthy to do so; however, it does require our attention from time to time. Every living being will reach an end on this earth. Even being thankful for the opportunity to wake up morning after morning is overwhelming...the Lord has called us to live here one more day, and for that we can rejoice. Our lives may seem mundane or even unbearable, but He gave us this day to live out. 

Death affects the youngest of young and oldest of old...it most cases, it breaks our hearts. The circumstances surrounding a death are shared, the time of his passing, his state of mind, his state of being are all shared, and news usually spreads quickly among those who knew him. We talk about times we shared with him, how he loved, memories slip into our mind about how he rubbed his nose or expressed an emotion uniquely. All of the memories seem to be fleeting and simply not enough...we are left longing for more time to be with him.

That's when we are drawn into faith...into a belief of something greater than ourselves. Heaven is an appealing and popular line of thought. Although, people don't like to think about what it takes to get there. Now, I don't claim to know what God has planned for us...but I do know He wants us to have a relationship with Him and with His Son, Jesus Christ. I believe that heaven is beautiful...a marvelous light where darkness has no foothold on us. We get to be in the presence of the Lord Almighty forever and ever. We get to worship His holy name. Understanding will be given to us as a gift, but that doesn't even matter, because we get to just BE in existence with the beautiful Lord of lords. 

So, my thought is....if people don't want a relationship with Jesus here on earth, why do they want one with Him up in heaven? Why do they think they will get to spend eternity in heaven with God, when they wouldn't even consider getting to know Him while they were alive on earth? Although, I understand God has every right to allow anyone He chooses into heaven, it seems odd to me that we presume Jesus didn't mean what He said when He said, "No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). I'd rather not risk it...I want to be in heaven with Him.

During this difficult time, I had the opportunity to serve my family by creating one of memorial videos. This is the video I created for my great-aunt, Irene Valdez. She died at the age of 77, just surviving our grandson, Steven by 16 hours. Steven passed the day before at the age of 32. Later that week, another one of my cousins, Julian passed away during surgery. 

All three are deeply missed, and I pray they are gazing upon the face of the Lord Jesus.