Lately, we’ve been thinking a lot about old age and dying. Part of that is because we were recently visiting my parents and my mother, a palliative care nurse, has a lot to say about what the end of life looks like. It’s not pretty. There’s a lot of regret, a lot of brokenness, a lot of sin.

During the visit, I went to the park with an old family friend. “You know,” she said, looking at the fall colours, “I think that we’re like trees. We have these covers, these screens that we put up for people to see, and they can be spectacular. But then, at the end, it all drops away, and what we really are is left in the open. Just like the trunks and branches of these trees.”
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A while ago, I was sitting in a waiting room, waiting to see my doctor. I didn’t know what was making me sick, but understood that it could be something serious. It turned out to be minor, but I realized anew that, unless I die suddenly or the Lord returns first, I will at some point recieve a diagnosis that will signal the end of my life. It’s just a matter of time.

My mother works as a nurse at an end of life care facility, looking after people who have only days to live. Most of them have not lived in a way that makes it easy to die. Continue reading →

“‘O death, I will be thy plagues.’ (Hosea 13:14) Disease brings death, and the grave destroys. But here God promises a radical reversal. Death will be diseased and the grave will be destroyed. Israel’s enemies will themselves be defeated and Israel will be released.

Paul borrows this language and the principle behind it to anticipate the ultimate victory of the Christian over death: Continue reading →