Life

My son asked me a philosophical question today. The last few months, we've had 4 deaths. People we were close to, others aquaintences. But, my son picked up on the sadness I felt as I remembered one who had passed and he asked why I was sad about them dying. Good question little man, should I be sad they've passed? The afterlife is stll a mystery seeing as there's no clean cut answer where you go when you die. Christians believe Heaven, some believe you're judged when you die and it's decided Heaven or Hell. Other Christians believe you're not judged until Jesus returns. Still, other Christians believe in purgatory. Most major religion has a form of "Heaven" and "Hell" and different specifications on how to get into either and different ideas on what they are specifically. Egyptians would burry food and other things to help the dead in their journey to the afterlife. Cofucianism doesn't deal at all with the afterlife, just how to live while on Earth.

So to answer his question why was I sad? I was sad because I won't see him again. You go through the grieving process of I should have said this. Or if I could see him one last time I'd do this. I think Ecclesiastes 3:1-7 sums it up best for me.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-7 (New International Version)

Ecclesiastes 3

A Time for Everything

¹ There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

² a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,

³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak

A time to mourn, the gentleman I was mourning passed away a week ago today. I was in the middle of belt testing and made a 3 hour trip home to go to the funeral. But as the Bible says, there is a time for everything.

So, I'm posing this question: If today was your last day, what would you do?

I remember not too long ago, I read a story in the paper about a mother who was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Her last few months were not spent doing things she never had done. Her last few months were spent doing things she would never get a chance to do.......... with her children. She taught her husband how to care for their 2 toddler girls, how to braid their hair, how to fix their food, how to pick out their clothes. She went and bought birthday cards for them for each year and signed them and wrote a note in each one. She bought presents for each birthday. She then wrote a letter explaining what was happening to her and why she wouldn't be around. I would hope that if I knew I only had 6 months to live, I would spend it spending time with my son. I've even told my husband I want him to remarry, which he's not totally happy with. But as a loving wife, I want my husband to be happy, I want my son to have a mother. The old saying "If you love something, let it go, if it's meant to be it will be." If I love him, I need to let him go, he needs to let me go and go be happy.

Death is part of life. Name one living thing that does not die? You can't can you? There is a time for every purpose under God's Heaven.

My thoughts are: Don't worry about tomorrow. You aren't guaranteed the next breath you take, so take nothing for granted. Do things at the approptiate times and don't worry about making mistakes. There is no such thing as a coincidence. If something's meant to happen, it will. Live for now, because tomorrow never comes.