“Life lives, life dies. Life laughs, life cries. Life gives up and life tries. But life looks different through everyone's eyes.” -UnknownA couple of days ago, I stepped out of my vehicle and into the rain. I stood, caught in a moment so amazing, I wasn't concerned with getting wet. The sun was out and the rain was coming down heavy with the glint of the sun in every drop. The wet pavement shimmered with a gold orb, but yet the rain fell. The sun was so striking reflected through the rain, that the normal idea of rain and gloom being partners was shattered. For a moment everything was surreal and the rain seemed so poignant, as if I had never seen rain before.
Someone died this week. I'm sure lots of people died this week, but what did it look like to them. Crying for a reason or maybe an answer, they missed the point. Mourning for someone having left this earth has a sort of selfishness in it that we don't notice. For only a moment death caught me as something to be hated, feared, or avoided. It looked like something demanding a purpose or a reason that no one could explain, but after seeing the death of a person, who I knew had finally made it home to somewhere perfect, my outlook on death changed. Still, death is all too common and never appreciated for what it really is.
When we get so use to the rain that darkness sometimes brings, we simply say it's raining and move inside to avoid it. Death is like this at times. Stunning, brilliant, awe inspiring, yet death all the same, so we choose to write it off. Rain isn't as noticeable when we are in the middle of it, running for home because we are far too concerned with heading it off. It's not seen as water and what it is here to do, but rather a hindrance we've learned to accept as part of the storm.
When that sun comes out, unexpected and perfectly timed, throwing itself through ever drop, changing our view from simple rain, to diamonds being scattered on the earth, the perspective changes. When death is accepted as a victory over life, a triumph with God, our deaths resemble sun through the rain. Sure it's still death, but oh so beautiful! We took the stage for our final bow and left with the crowd applauding! We danced unashamed and took the plunge like no one has before! When the joy in your own finish surpasses that of death as being an end, you see it as a beginning. You can choose to see death as showers, nothing more than another chapter in the storm just like everyone else, but if you know God, he will be the light that pierces your raindrops. Those that know that, will see it as well, and will be happy, for they too will see the sun through the rain.
Someone died this week. I'm sure lots of people died this week, but what did it look like to them. Crying for a reason or maybe an answer, they missed the point. Mourning for someone having left this earth has a sort of selfishness in it that we don't notice. For only a moment death caught me as something to be hated, feared, or avoided. It looked like something demanding a purpose or a reason that no one could explain, but after seeing the death of a person, who I knew had finally made it home to somewhere perfect, my outlook on death changed. Still, death is all too common and never appreciated for what it really is.
When we get so use to the rain that darkness sometimes brings, we simply say it's raining and move inside to avoid it. Death is like this at times. Stunning, brilliant, awe inspiring, yet death all the same, so we choose to write it off. Rain isn't as noticeable when we are in the middle of it, running for home because we are far too concerned with heading it off. It's not seen as water and what it is here to do, but rather a hindrance we've learned to accept as part of the storm.
When that sun comes out, unexpected and perfectly timed, throwing itself through ever drop, changing our view from simple rain, to diamonds being scattered on the earth, the perspective changes. When death is accepted as a victory over life, a triumph with God, our deaths resemble sun through the rain. Sure it's still death, but oh so beautiful! We took the stage for our final bow and left with the crowd applauding! We danced unashamed and took the plunge like no one has before! When the joy in your own finish surpasses that of death as being an end, you see it as a beginning. You can choose to see death as showers, nothing more than another chapter in the storm just like everyone else, but if you know God, he will be the light that pierces your raindrops. Those that know that, will see it as well, and will be happy, for they too will see the sun through the rain.
