Beautiful Death

Beautiful Death. It seems like such an oxymoron, doesn't it? What's so beautiful about death? Where is the beauty in losing a loved one? In a rotting corpse? Or in life being reduced to nothing but grey ashes? Is not death a gruesome, vile, ugly thing? How can it be beautiful?


Death is but a doorway to eternity--the River we must cross to get to the other side. It's a journey--a brief journey that we're taking. Eternity is our destination. Death is the end of life here on this temporary earth, but it really is just the beginning of eternity. Death can both be beautiful and gruesome. It all depends on where you're going.


It bothers me to think about it sometimes. How so many people spend their lives here on earth, clinging to it as if they will have it forever. It's sad how many parents strive so hard to send their kids to prestigious schools, but do not give a thought to where they're all going when the sand in the hourglass runs out.


Many believe they're going UP...very few think they are going DOWN. The question is.. ARE YOU SURE? When we're really sick, we go to a doctor, ask him to exam us. We take several tests...X-Rays, MRI, CT Scans, various lab tests--just to BE SURE that we're going to be OK. Or at least, to make a diagnosis so we can take the necessary action to get better. But so few people spend time BEING SURE of where they will spend eternity. Are you sure that just because you're baptized, you're going UP? Are you sure that just because you were baptized, or go to church once a week, or you pay your taxes, or your NBI record is clean, you're going to the happy side of eternity? 


I don't want people to think I'm a heaven-bound big-head who looks pitifully on others. To be honest, I've asked these questions several times. Am I sure of where I will spend my eternity? The thing is, this mistake is too priceless to make. If we fail an exam, we can always retake it. If we make a wrong decision, even if we lose everything, there is always hope of recovery. But when we make a mistake in the direction we're going, we will pay for ETERNITY.


I don't know how to stress that word in a way that will make us think of it. And really ponder it. ETERNITY. NO END. FOREVER. What other word can I use? Can you imagine it? Something without end? SO imagine if we go the wrong direction. Go through the door that leads DOWN. What can we do about it? NOTHING.


So how can we know if we're really going UP? How can we know if we're going the right direction? How can we know if we're going to have a beautiful death? Well, we've been given the TRUTH, haven't we? It's just that we're so busy with this temporary world, we have no time to really search it out. Some people say that it's confusing how many truths there are. How can there be many? There's only ONE TRUTH. It's HIS WORD. Some say it's confusing. Some say it's difficult to study. Some say they have no time. Others think they already know enough. It just saddens me to think about it. It pays to know....just think about it. YOUR ETERNITY DEPENDS ON IT.