Ugly death

I write this post having just been involved in the care of an adolescent that died soon after coming to hospital. The experience is raw.

Having watched the life of a person extinguished before my eyes despite our attempts to save that life, I cry with the Psalmist,
"My heart pounds in my chest.
The terror of death assaults me."*

Having watched a family overwhelmed with grief clinging to the lifeless body of their loved one, I weep;
"...you have crushed us in the jackal’s desert home.
You have covered us with darkness and death."**

With the teacher, I am perplexed;
"I have seen everything in this meaningless life, including the death of good young people and the long life of wicked people."***

With the apostle, I exclaim,
"Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?"
With sober joy, and sympathy for the lost, I trust;
"Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord."****

Like creation, I groan,
"...with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time."*****

And I wait;
"Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ."******




*Psalm 55:4.
**Psalm 44:19.
***Ecclesiates 7:15.
****Romans 7:24-25.
*****Romans 8:21-22.
******1 Corinthians 15:54-57.