How does one die who never prays nor talks to God about anything? How does one approach death when there has been no effort to claim God’s death defying promises? Surely it must be a shock to one’s spiritual system to face the unknown with an unknown God. The trauma of death is too much for our human resources alone. The thoughts of dying requires us to have some serious thoughts about God. Our fragile understanding of our departure from this life is proof that we need more than the human intellect to guide us into eternity. We are not equipped to face death with calloused indifference and that too is a part of God’s grace. He requires us to have sober thoughts about our eternal destiny and then offers us a place He has gone to prepare. He frightens us with the prospects of entering the darkness all alone and then He promises to be with us always. He lures us to the edge of life with resurrection hope and bids us come unto Him and find rest.
Our hope is a matter of faith and acceptance. He does not force His house of “many mansions” upon us. He does not walk beside us as an uninvited presence. It is a simple gospel of receiving what Jesus has to offer and we complicate it greatly when we try to earn it. Heaven is a gift we do not deserve, therefore, dying as well as living is a matter of grace.
Only with Christ can we face death with the assurance that God who called us into life has something special for us in death. Who knows what we might grow to become in the hereafter.
