Like a flower on the field

As for mortals, their days are like grass;

They flourish like a flower on the field;

For the wind passes over it, and it is gone,

And its place knows it no more.

Psalm 103:15-16, NRSV

Where were you when Mel died? According to a report at least 2.335 million were watching when the popular character was killed off on the hit TV series Packed to the Rafters. For those who don’t watch (or care), poor Mel died in a car accident while texting and driving (an object lesson on why doing both simultaneously often leads to tears). Within moments of the event, fans of Packed were venting their sadness (or anger) over the tragic incident with a psychologist even warning that the episode could trigger overwhelming sadness which would require some to “…adopt strategies to overcome their grief” (http://www.heraldsun.com.au/ipad-application/rafters-funeral-hits-raw-nerve-with-fans/story-fn6bfkm6-1225950231325).

It is a tragedy of death that we all know it’s coming but we don’t know when. Many who saw Ben Rafter planning that romantic getaway with Mel and running to the knock on the door might have reached for that Kleenex just then. What an awful moment it is when we are suddenly confronted with the realisation that all our hopes and dreams of sharing the future with a loved one are irrefutably and undeniably over.

As Christians, the Bible reminds us that death is the result of sin entering the world (Genesis 2:17, Romans 6:23) but that Jesus came to set us free from our fear of death (Hebrew 2:15). It will always be a mystery how the Immortal, Eternal Creator of Heaven and Earth shared humanity’s experience of death and overcame it but in doing so He made it possible for us to share in His victory (Romans 4:25, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, 1 Thessalonians 4:14). Just as we walk with God in this life, we will walk with God in the next. Sadly those who choose not to be in a relationship with God in this world will not be forced to spend eternity with Him in the next. God respects choice but the Bible has nothing good to say about eternal separation from God.