I was watching a little bit of "Blue's Clues" with my daughter yesterday and it was an episode where they explained the three (Christmas, Hanukkh, and Kwanzaa) holidays coming up. Their explanation of Christmas was pretty bland, as one might expect. All they really said was that we celebrate a special birth. No mention of whose birth, but I suppose that's a given. I think. Anyway, that pretty much sums up. We celebrate a special birth. We anticipate the coming of a new life. It's a pretty important subject during this time of the year.
I've been dealing with a lot of death, however, the last couple of days. They're different kinds of death, though. We've had a mouse problem since Saturday and two little mice have gone to mouse heaven since then. Our dog killed one Saturday and the other was caught in a trap this morning. As I dumped Mouse #2 in the garbage and then had a discussion with my wife about our garbage disposal dying, our daughter called out from the other room: "There's a dead squirrel in the backyard!" We both answered: "What?" and then went to inspect. Sure enough, there it was on its back. We're not sure why, but our dog may be on a killing spree though the squirrel looked fairly peaceful. So I went back outside, shoveled the squirrel up, dumped it in a bag, threw it away, and came back inside. When I got to the office this morning, I was told that a long-time member of the church had passed away. She was in her late 90s.
I'm not sure what to make about all this. All kinds of death happens daily, but despite that, so many yearn for this birth that we celebrate in less than two weeks. New life is constantly hoped for, no matter what the circumstances.
2 comments:
I've never dealt with death in any real way. I suppose eventually I will. However, something struck me the other day in a class I had. My professor said something I feel is often overlooked when Christians deal with death. Many Christians have accepted the notion that death is simply a 'natural part of life'. I myself was one of those. In some ways, it's an easy escape from the pain we experience when someone or something we love dies. If we can pass it off to being 'natural' or 'inevitbale' then we resign ourselves to our fate. But is this what Christ taught? No! We see in Scipture that in fact, death was NOT the natural order God created. Death was introduced to the world on account of human sin. Christ came in oder to give life where there is death, light where there is darkness, salvation where there is sin. So we see death, sin, and darkness wrapped up together as antogonistic to God and his purposes. This said, my professor made the comment "Christians, of all people, should be the MOST outraged, the MOST offended at the presence of Death." This struck a chord with me.... not just in regarding death but also sin and darkness. Why are we as followers of Jesus Christ the Son of God not more outraged at death, sin, and evil darkness?! We cannot allow a pagan world pull the veil of 'wisdom' over our eyes in believing that 'death is natural' 'sin is questionable' 'evil is relative'. With a passion for God's mighty love, justice, and wisdom we should rage against such beliefs and hold firm to the hope we have in Christ, that is, eternal life with God in a new heaven and a new earth! Just some thoughts...
Thanks, Adam, some thought-provoking stuff.
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