In 8th century Korea, there was a monk who wrote "Song in Memory of a Deceased Sister." The poem starts with this sentence, "Here are the ways of life and death, and you happened to leave even without being able to say 'I am leaving.' Like leaves, falling down here and there from the wind in early Autumn , we don't know where we go even though we were born on the same branch...." He was a Buddhist monk, so he might see life after death a little differently to our beliefs as Christians. But, we all agree that life on earth is short and unpredictable on how it will end.
I wrote about the cheerful conversation between Miah and her mother, celebrating Fall Harvest Day (Super Moon Day) last month. After only 12 days, my mother-in-law passed away. We had always been thinking about her and how the day could come any moment because of her health conditions in the last half decade or so, but we didn't expect it would happen so suddenly.
When we experience the death of our loved ones, we think about our lives and death more closely. It's not just the source of a movie or novel, but the reality that is always with us. As Christians, we believe that the life after death we are going to experience is not just better, but totally different than the life on earth. The apostle Paul mentioned, "I am torn between the two (life and death): I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far, but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body"(Phil. 1:23-24).
Everything in our lives has its own time. For now we will enjoy every moment of our lives and do our best to make them fruitful as our God blesses and leads us. Because we will know how God will welcome us after we finish our lives on earth, we will not fear death but try to live day after day to be more mature and love each other as God's children. Each day should seem more precious when we get closer and closer to the last day of our present lives.