Reconciliation With Death

There are few of us but who have been touched somehow by death. We may not have been touched closely by it, but sooner or later along our lives, most of us are bereft of someone near and deeply cherishedand all of us will some day meet it face to face. Perhaps most of us feel that we could accept death for ourselves and for those we love if it did not so often seem to come with such untimeliness. But we rebel when it so little considers our wishes or our readiness. Yet we may well ask ourselves: When would we be willing to part with those we love? And who is there among us whose judgment we would trust to measure out our lives? Such decisions would be terrible for mere men to make. But fortunately we are spared making them; fortunately they are made by wisdom higher than ours. And when death makes its visitations among us, inconsolable grief and rebellious bitterness should have no place. There must be no quarrel with irrevocable facts. Even when death comes by events which seem unnecessary and avoidable, we must learn to accept what we cannot help. Indeed, the greatest blessing that can follow the death of those we love is reconciliation. Without it there is no peace. But with it come quiet thoughts and quickened memories. And what else shall a man do except become reconciled? What purpose does he serve by fighting what he cannot touch or by brooding upon what he cannot change? We have to trust the Lord God for so many things, and it is but one thing more to trust Him in the issues of life and of death, and to accept the fact that His plans and promises and purposes transcend the bounds of this world and of this life. With such faith the years are kind, and peace and reconciliation do come to those who have laid to rest their loved oneswho, even in death, are not far removed from us, and of whom our Father in heaven will be mindful until we meet again, even as we are mindful of our own children. Bitter grief without reconciliation serves no good purpose. Death comes to all of us, but so does life everlasting!