Finding Beauty

This will be my last blog post of 2018.  I’ll post the Sunday sermon, of course, but as far as something that is specifically intended as a blog post, this will be the last one.  So, I want to take this chance to wish you a Happy New Year!

I don’t know how 2018 went for you.  Maybe it was great!  Maybe it was awful.  Most likely, it was some of both, with a good chunk of mediocre mixed in.  That’s kind of how life works, as I’m sure you know.  We have some great times, we have some lousy times, and we have a lot of things that happen that are neither great nor lousy, but are just the natural ebb and flow of life.

The third chapter of Ecclesiastes tells us that there’s a time for everything.  After you’ve lived for a while, you know that’s true.  Ecclesiastes does not say that it’s a good thing that there’s a time for everything.  It doesn’t say that it’s a bad thing, either.  It just says that’s the way it is.  It does say one other thing, though--it says that God has made everything beautiful in its time.

There’s a tough concept for us.  It means that a lot of things we don’t like are, in God’s determination, beautiful, if they happen in God’s time.  Literally, everything.  And among other things, everything includes death.  Ecclesiastes tells us that even death is beautiful, if it happens in God’s time.

We struggle with that.  And I do, too.  But as you know, in my job I have to deal with death fairly often.  And the more I deal with it, the more I can see a certain beauty in it.  I don’t think that’s the word I’d have used, if the author of Ecclesiastes had not used it first.  But I think I can see at least some of what he means.

I’ve visited with a number of people who knew their death was imminent.  I mean, we all know we’re going to die at some point, but I’m talking about people who know that it’s coming within a relatively short time.  And there is, at least sometimes, a certain beauty in it.  They’re able to come to terms with their situation.  They’re able to have some quality time with their loved ones.  They’re able to make peace with people and with God.  And usually, they come to accept that death is a part of life.  It’s how it’s set up.

And sometimes, they realize something else.  They realize that it’s only by leaving this world that we’re able to go on to the next one.  And for a Christian, that means going to be with God in heaven.  And as sad as death can be, it would be even sadder if we overstayed our time here and were not able to go to heaven and be with God.

And there’s one other thing.  The eighth chapter of Romans tells us that nothing can separate us from God’s love.  Nothing.  Not even death.  That’s a pretty awesome thought.  And it should make death a little easier for us to accept.  And maybe, it will even help us see the beauty in it.

I don’t know what 2019 will hold for you.  I don’t know what it will hold for me.  But whatever it holds, may you always remember that God loves you.  And may you always remember that nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate you from God’s love.

Have a blessed and happy new year.