Death, Joy & Jealousy? Part I
Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Psalm 90:12
Sadly, it often takes something pretty major, like a global pandemic, for us to begin thinking about death. However, the Bible tells us genuine wisdom is gained when we consider our own mortality. The greatest teacher I have had on the this subject, surprisingly was my grandmother. Over the next couple of weeks I am going to base my weekly devotionals on some of the wisdom I learned and am still learning from my Nanny Bell…
Part 1 — Death & Joy?
My Papa died in 1985 and the final years of his life were ones of tremendous suffering. At nine, this was my first up-close encounter with death. I was devastated and could not accept my Papa was gone (*I remember praying that God would somehow let my Papa visit me in some ghostlike way; just like Obi-Wan Kenobi & Yoda could speak and appear to Luke Skywalker after they died — Hey I was a kid & God was supposed to do miracles!). As a kid, considering death for the first time, I was incapable of any understanding it beyond my own personal grief and sense of loss.
In the days following my Papa’s death, I remember spending lots of time with my Nanny asking her all sorts of questions about Papa. I remember questioning her about how sad she must be? And what will she miss most now that Papa was gone? Surprisingly, however much wanted to focus on the negative my Nanny would shift my thinking towards the positive? She never pretended she wasn’t sad, but rather than remaining focused on our family’s loss, she shifted the conversation to how happy she now was for Papa. She would tell me, “Papa no longer had any pain.” But far more importantly, she repeatedly told me, “Papa had received the greatest gift imaginable, the reward for his faith in Jesus. An everlasting glorious new life with God! And, “How could we not feel happy for him?”
My Nanny would not allow her personal sorrow triumph over the joy she had for her husband, who she knew was now united with his Savior. She also wanted to make sure that her young grandson knew, when our hope is placed in Jesus, even in death we can experience genuine joy!
P.S. Even stranger than discovering joy in the midst of death, my Nanny also taught me there is also a place for jealousy? This wisdom we will consider next week…
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade — kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
I Peter 1:3–5
P.S. Even stranger than discovering joy in the midst of death, my Nanny also taught me there is also a place for jealousy? This wisdom we will consider next week…
Yes, of course Nanny was also sad and filled with sorrow, but curious to me, she also had tremendous joy for her beloved. With all my questions, my Nanny sat with me, and
As one would expect, over the next decade I lived with my Nanny I witnessed all the emotion one would expect after loosing a beloved spouse. Yes there was plenty of sorrow, grief, and feeling sorry for oneself, but this was not the true lesson I learned from my Nanny in the aftermath of her husband’s death. No, what I witnessed and learned from her, and am still learning, is that in death there can both be a beautiful joy and jealousy, if we are willing to understand and accept death properly as believing Christians.
Joy — My Papa’s funeral was one of the most joyous ceremonies I had ever been part of. There was lots of tears, but their was lots of singing and praising. It somehow did not make sense to my young mind, but to my Nanny, she let me know, that my Papa’s earthly sufferings have come to an end, but more importantly, when his sufferings ended, he received the long awaited reward of his faith, a residence in glory with God! Nanny’s attention was not on what she lost (which was where all my attention was), but rather on what her beloved received in
Jealousy — One of the Ten Commandments condemns covetousness. Yet, also in the commandments, we also learn that God is a, “jealous God”.
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade — kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
I Peter 1:3–5
