Why would I fear death? When my mortal body dies, my soul, the essence of who I really am, will go to Heaven. How awesome it is to imagine meeting God face to face! My deep faith in an afterlife quells any fear of death.
Now I’m not saying that I don’t get nervous when I fly. And a diagnosis of breast cancer was unnerving even when they said it was small and very curable. Loving life is why God created us. Look at the world he gave us and the people who mean so much to us, we are meant to enjoy life here on earth.
How we live our lives here, determines if we go to heaven or to hell. I’m not saying God has a book where he keeps track of all the sins we commit. He wants us to love him and if we do sincerely love him we will make the choices that make him happy.
The only reason to fear death is if you believe that it is final. Your body goes into the ground or is cremated and that’s it. If there is no afterlife one would have good reason to fear death. But, if you believe as I do that death is like birth going from one state of being to another, then death loses it’s ability to cause fear.
Think of an infant in the mother’s womb. It’s warm and well fed. It’s a peaceful place and the baby is quite happy there. But, it can’t stay there indefinitely. It doesn’t know what birth is like or where one goes after birth. If it could think or talk, it probably would express some concern about what is going to happen. Life, for the baby, is an unknown concept. We fear the unknown.
As a child, the worst punishment was knowing that I had disappointed my dad. It’s like that with God. I love him and he loves me. He wants the best for me. When something hurts me, he cries with me. Before surgery, I prayed that everything would go well and that God would hold my hand throughout the long hours of the operation. I was confident that He would be there with me.
The anesthesiologist came to see me several days after the operation. He said he’d never had a patient smile through eight hours of surgery. He also noticed that I appeared to be holding hands with someone. I told him that God was with me and had held my hand as I had asked him to.
I look forward to many more years doing God’s work and enjoying his creation. But, I know that when the end of my life on earth comes, I will be going to a much better place.
