Death is nothing at all
A Facebook friend, Helene Wilson Easterday shared this on her wall. I loved it and wanted to use it but I am so afraid of violating copyright that I asked her where she got it. She found it and it comes from ‘The King of Terrors’, a sermon on death delivered in St Paul’s Cathedral on Whitsunday 1910, while the body of King Edward VII was lying in state at Westminster, Canon Henry Scott-Holland. (So out of copyright protection.)
Death is nothing at all
I have only slipped away into the next room
I am I and you are you
Whatever we were to each other
That we are still
Call me by my old familiar name
Speak to me in the easy way you always used
Put no difference into your tone
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow
Laugh as we always laughed
At the little jokes we always enjoyed together
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was
Let it be spoken without effort
Without the ghost of a shadow in it
Life means all that it ever meant
It is the same as it ever was
There is absolute unbroken continuity
What is death but a negligible accident?
Why should I be out of mind
Because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you for an interval
Somewhere very near
Just around the corner
All is well.
Nothing is past; nothing is lost
One brief moment and all will be as it was before
How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!
Heaven
If you have been following me for a while you know that I have literally read hundreds of books and articles about heaven since the losses I have experienced the last 3 years.
The very best is by author, Randy Alcorn called HEAVEN.
I love how Amazon tells you when you purchased a book. I bought this on November 2nd, 2011. That was 12 days after Jamie died and 12 days before Lillian died.
Twelve in the Bible means completion, I will write more of my thoughts on this later. Coincidence ? There are none.
Reading Randy Alcorn’s book as one of the first gave me a good foundation for reading all the other one’s because it is a theology of heaven.
This poem by Canon Henry Scott-Holland in written in 1910 confirms what I have learned in my studies on heaven.
The parting of our loved ones is not the end of our relationships, only an interruption.
Continuity
Randy Alcorn in his book heaven writes a lot about continuity. He states:
“By observing the resurrected Christ, we learn not only about resurrected bodies but also about resurrected relationships. Christ communicates with his disciples and shows his love to them as a group and as individuals. He instructs them and entrusts a task to them (Acts 1:4-8). If you study his interactions with Mary Magdalene (John 20:10-18), Thomas (20:24-29), and Peter (21:15-22), you will see how similar they are to his interactions with these same people before he died.
The fact that Jesus picked up his relationships where they’d left off is a foretaste of our own lives after we are resurrected. We will experience continuity between our current lives and our resurrected lives, with the same memories and relational histories.
Once we understand that Christ’s resurrection is the prototype for the resurrection of mankind and the earth, we realize that Scripture has given us an interpretive precedent for approaching passages concerning human resurrection and life on the New Earth.”
Alcorn, Randy (2004-10-01). Heaven (Alcorn, Randy) (Kindle Locations, 1500, 2238-2239). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition. (txt emphasis mine)
If you buy Randy’s book, for no other reason buy it for his research on the doctrine of continuity.
How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!
I love this! My family and I have talked many times about the questions we have concerning Jamie’s accident, his declaration of brain death and what he heard while we were in the hospital room. We have asked each other hundreds of questions about each of them and their unexpected deaths.
I have questions about my husband’s last moments when he had a heart attack in his classroom. Was it quick? Was he having chest pains? Why did God take Lilly Bear one month after the devastating loss of my son? So many unanswered questions we ALL have.
The verse in the poem states, we will laugh at the trouble of parting. This is similar to the conclusion my family and I have come to that we just won’t care. We will be so happy to be together again and to see it all from our Father’s loving perspective.
Reading about heaven and life on the New Earth helps me deal with my grief more than anything I do.
Death, like birth, is only a transformation, another birth.
When we die we shall change our state, that is all.
And with faith in God, it is as easy and natural as going to sleep here and waking up there.
From – Journal Of A Soul – Death Is The Future For Everyone, Pope John XXIII
