Life, Death, and New Life

For some reason memories of my great-grandfather's last moments have been echoing around in my head over the last week. As I was pondering them the other day I realized they could be illuminating for the church.

My great-grandfather passed away in the hospital. His death was very powerful for me. He had been battling illness for a long time and just before Christmas was clearly fading. My grandfather, his son arrived first on the 23rd, early in the morning, my brother, mother, grandmother, and myself all drove down later in the morning. Since he was not conscious when we arrived, my mother and grandmother went out for sandwichs while my brother and I sat in the waiting room. A nurse came in at one point asking for our mother and grandmother, she informed us that we were to send them in as soon as they returned. Shortly after their return the nurse summoned my brother and I to my great-grandfather's room as well. It was not long after we arrived that my great-grandfather passed away, my memory says it was 12:20 but I may be wrong on that. I remember watching his heart monitor or some other machine that monitored his vital signs. At one point it dipped very low and then began to climb again. As I watched the machine I wondered if that was the turning point. I thought about what would happen if now he began to recover and get better. I remember also wondering what lay ahead for him. My great-grandfather was in his 90s, this was not the first time he had been ill. I seriously wondered what sort of future lay ahead for him in this life. A short time later a nurse came in, checked his vital signs, and told us that he had passed away. Appearantly even after his death the machines would pick up on phantom signals or something else what would confuse them and make them think there was still activity. I am not 100% sure, but I believe that dip that I had pondered upon was when he died. I believe my great-grandfather wanted the family there when he passed away. He could have died at any other time, but it was only once everyone was there that he passed away. What struck me most recently however was the way that things can appear alive even after they die. How often do we see the echoes of life in organiztions after they have passed away. Our technology can confuse us into thinking somethin is alive that is not. Is the same for true for the church? Death is often seen as a negative thing, but I think that good things can come from it. I know what my great-grandfather meant to me, and even now, over ten years later I still remember what it meant to be there as he died, and I am still learning from the echoes of his life.