My Days are Numbered

I am fighting tears as I write this. Yesterday a young man died at a training camp run by the military academy my son attends. He was only eighteen. Only a week past, a young woman in her twenties who had attended my church died unexpectedly as well. Both deaths were doubly tragic because of the youth of the people who died.

That death is a part of the human experience is a given, but when it touches us in abrupt ways, it somehow seems a more terrible burden of grief to bear. Parents expect to outlive their children, not bury them. My heart goes out to the grieving parents of these two young people while at the same time trembles with a measure of fear that perhaps I, too, could face the same agony if my son were to ever give the ultimate sacrifice for his country.

People have to face the reality of death whether or not they want to. God has allotted to all a certain number of days on this earth and then we are called to an afterlife, regardless of what we believe. Death, especially when it takes the young and vibrant, seems to make life meaningless at first glance. All our dreams and efforts are for naught when death takes us away from all we have known and loved.

But for Christians death is cast in a different light altogether. Scripture says we do not grieve as the world without hope grieves. Because Jesus died and rose again, we have hope, too, of a resurrection and a new life that will no longer include death and tears: just as was written, “O death where is your sting?” We have sorrow and suffering now at times, but the God of all grace, peace and love comforts us with the hope of spending eternity in his presence and in joyful union with loved ones who have gone on before us.

Lives cut short are not in vain. I don’t have the answer as to why God calls some home so soon, but his ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts. For the time they were here, those two who died left their mark on the lives of those around them. Their light shone for but a brief moment, but it was bright. I think it’s time for me to stop and take a hard look at how bright my light is shining. To remember I don’t know when I will face death. As David said, Lord, teach me to number my days.