Death comes to us all but life is available anytime!

It is difficult not to feel extremely saddened by the deaths of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett.

Farrah Fawcett was one of the most photographed and physically admired women as I grew up. She died last week of anal cancer. Somehow it doesn’t quite fit or seem right. What a humbling experience she must have walked through.

Michael Jackson was probably the most gifted single pop performer ever. Amazing! He died at the age of 50. It is reported that his body appeared underweight, underfed, bald & scarred by numerous operations and marks from pain killing injections. Again it doesn’t seem right.

The truth of the matter is we are all going to die.

When people die who you ‘grew up with’ it sought of brings death that much closer however. I remember when Robert, who was my best man, died at 24, a year after Susan and I had been married. It was a horrendous shock. From feeling invincible one quickly recognises that the body is merely a shell holding our soul.

At anytime we can be taken. Bob Knight, a 66 year old truck driver, was tragically killed by a stray bullet last Thursday night. Just driving his truck down a suburban street he was effectively murdered in a second and passed from life to death.

Passing from life to death is interestingly not how Jesus sees it! This verse in John 5 really struck me the other day. Jesus said: “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life”.

Jesus is effectively saying that crossing over from death to life happens before you die. Coming into a relationship with God through Jesus means that we have already passed over. Death then is merely a gateway to eternal life.

My prayer is that Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, and indeed Bob Knight had already passed from death to life before they died. Of course I cannot be sure but I thank God that back when I was 13 yrs old I found life forever through Jesus which is available anytime, to anyone. 

Yours
Peter