DEATH: LIFE'S GREATEST MYSTERY

November is the month many Christian groups traditionally set aside to remember the dead. What happens when we die? Where do we go? Where is Heaven? Where is Hell? Do either really exist? These are probing and prolific questions to which we can only theorize an answer. Death is the great uniting force. Regardless of our culture, religious practices, whether we are young or old, rich or poor, it is the one thing that every single being is certain to experience. It is an experience that will ONLY happen once. Although some have had near-death experiences, and their experiences all seem very similar, none of us truly knows what happens after we die.

The study of death and dying, known as Thanatology, offers insight into how we die, however, offers no concrete evidence as to what we experience post-mortem. Terminally ill patients often die in a very similar manner, actually, some might say, choosing the time of their death-perhaps they are waiting for a loved one to come, a holiday or special occasion to finish, but they know, on some level, when their time has come to die. Hospice workers are trained to look for signs in the patients under their care, and can often predict within a number of days, and sometimes, even down to the hour of death.

Here's my confession: Death is incredibly fascinating to me. A subject many find morbid and disturbing, death, to me is a great mystery. What really happens to us when we die? Are we aware of the goings- on here on earth? Is death an ending, a beginning or just a continuation? Is not death just a part of life? Looking at this from a Christian perspective, we are given broad and sweeping descriptions of the afterlife, but are these descriptions purely allegorical or are they literal? It's all a matter of interpretation, I surmise. There are probably as many interpretations of the after-life as there are people. I have lost some very dear loved ones to death, and I think of them often. I wonder where they are, if they can see me, what "life" is like for them. Death is many things. Certainly, death is the ultimate in finality. Saying a final farewell to someone we love is never easy. Yet, there is a beauty and peace in death to which nothing compares. From a very young age, I was exposed to death. In fact, one of my favorite past times as a child was to visit cemeteries with my grandparents. I have found very few places on earth where there is as much serenity and peace as there is in a cemetery. And, so, as you pause this month to remember your beloved dead this month, do you, as I, wonder where they are?