Way back on May 14th, I put up a #ThrowbackThursday post on my Facebook page. It included an art journal entry that I’d created on February 14, 2021. In that post, I promised I’d put an article here giving some insight into its backstory.
It’s been over a month-and-a-half. One reason it has taken me this long to write about it is because this piece has a tough sentiment. Death is a part of life. Not a popular thought. I think most humans don’t want to contemplate their own mortality. Death is a very unpleasant subject. And yet, death comes for us all at some point.
I created this piece in response to a health issue my dad was facing at the time. It was a recognition that his health was beginning to fail, that his end on this earth was likely coming sooner rather than later, and a reminder to myself of my Christian hope – that the end here on earth is but the beginning of our eternity. As a Christian, I believe that death is not the end. It’s merely a point of transition and transformation, hence the cocoon and butterfly. 2 Corinthians 5:6-8 says, “So we are always confident and know while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. In fact, we are confident, and we would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (CSB).
As I said earlier, death comes for us all at some point. None of us lives forever. We are not meant to live forever.
When my mom died 25 years ago, I had every expectation that God was going to heal her and send her home with us again. I believed she had many more years to live yet. When she died, I was devastated, and yes, my faith was shaken. I took my bewilderment, my disappointment, my confusion, my hurt, my anger straight to God. If you have questions, you ask the One who has the answers. I did not get all the answers I sought, but I had learned to trust Him. And even though it was hard, I leaned in to Him. He helped me limp through that season of my life, and my faith grew stronger because of it. I began to understand that death is indeed a part of life. Sometimes healing only comes on “the other side,” in heaven.
The flip side of the coin is that birth is also part of life – new life coming on the scene, a symbol of renewal, the start of the life cycle. One side of the coin usually brings joy, and the other side usually brings loss and grief.
By the time my dad’s health started failing – one issue after another showing up – rather than fighting what I was seeing (and what I was hearing from dad – that he was ready to go), I chose surrender, turned it over fully to God, asking that His will would be done. I understood and accepted that we were likely on the downhill slope toward the end of dad’s life on earth.
When he passed on March 6, 2022, I was sad but not devastated as I had been with mom’s death. I still had to walk through grief, but it was very different because I had seen the end coming and had chosen to accept it. It also helped that dad had articulated several times that he had lived a good, long life and was ready to go home.
As a Christian, I do not, “grieve like those who have no hope. Since we believe that Jesus died and rose, so we also believe that God will bring with Him those who have died in Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, CEB). I believe I will be reunited with my parents and my brother one day. Until then, I walk forward knowing death is a part of life and believing also that death is not the end of the story.
Peace be with you,
Jeanna