Rich Maffeo on Nostr: Some time ago, I read a poignant tale by American fiction writer, Madeline Le’Engle ...
Some time ago, I read a poignant tale by American fiction writer, Madeline Le’Engle (d. 2007). The story was about her grandfather. He’d always been a strong, vibrant, robust man – until the dementia demon sank its talons into his memory and slowly reduced the nearly 100-year-old to a shadow of what he once was. As her grandfather lay dying, he gripped her mother’s hand and asked, almost as a child might ask, “Who will go with me when I die?”
Those words haunt me whenever I think of them. There he was, a once powerful, ‘in-charge’ guy who had become like a small, frightened child. I know nothing of his position with Christ. I do not know if he ever humbled himself before the cross of Jesus. But if he had, Oh! What comfort someone could have given the frightened child inside the man.
Of course, men and women caught in the grip of dementia are not the only ones who lie on deathbeds, fearful that no one will go with them when they die. I know many healthy people who fear such a thing. And they have good reason to fear because they live lives without so much as a passing thought about eternity – nor do they care a smidgen that obedient faith in Jesus Christ is God's absolute and unyielding requirement for eternal life.
But, and perhaps even more troubling to me, are those I know who, although they live in faithful obedience to Christ, they STILL fear the grave.
Why is that, when God has so clearly promised to accompany them step by step through the valley of the shadow of death? Why do they fear when God has repeatedly told them such things as: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me HAS eternal life. He does not come into judgment but HAS PASSED from death to life.” (1 John 5:24, emphasis mine). Or this promise through St John the Apostle: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, THAT YOU MAY KNOW that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5:13, emphasis mine)
Continued in reply below:
Those words haunt me whenever I think of them. There he was, a once powerful, ‘in-charge’ guy who had become like a small, frightened child. I know nothing of his position with Christ. I do not know if he ever humbled himself before the cross of Jesus. But if he had, Oh! What comfort someone could have given the frightened child inside the man.
Of course, men and women caught in the grip of dementia are not the only ones who lie on deathbeds, fearful that no one will go with them when they die. I know many healthy people who fear such a thing. And they have good reason to fear because they live lives without so much as a passing thought about eternity – nor do they care a smidgen that obedient faith in Jesus Christ is God's absolute and unyielding requirement for eternal life.
But, and perhaps even more troubling to me, are those I know who, although they live in faithful obedience to Christ, they STILL fear the grave.
Why is that, when God has so clearly promised to accompany them step by step through the valley of the shadow of death? Why do they fear when God has repeatedly told them such things as: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me HAS eternal life. He does not come into judgment but HAS PASSED from death to life.” (1 John 5:24, emphasis mine). Or this promise through St John the Apostle: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, THAT YOU MAY KNOW that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5:13, emphasis mine)
Continued in reply below: