Week 16 2013 Hospitals, Caskets, and Life?!

We made our way into Batesville, Indiana this week.  Both the Batesville Casket Company and the Hill-Rom hospital bed manufacturer are headquartered in this town.  I was amazed at the size of the Batesville Casket Company’s manufacturing site.  It is enormous!  As part of my constant practice of taking pictures wherever we travel, of things and sights I find interesting, I took some pictures of this facility.  Una was not nearly as impressed as I was.  In fact, she thought it downright silly that I would waste my time taking pictures of something so ghoulish as a casket factory.  She explained that as she is getting older, the thought of dying is not very pleasant.  Talking about graves and caskets and funerals make her a little uneasy.  Death is just not a very pleasant subject for her these days.  Imagine that!

Of course, I’m being a little facetious.  However, when I place these two manufacturing plants in one place I find it difficult to not reflect on our mortality.  In the early seventies one of my psychology professors made the statement that death is a part of life, and that we simply can’t go through life without experiencing death, that there has only been one person that he has known of who has gone through life without experiencing death.  Therefore, since death is an inevitable part of life, should we not be able to openly discuss it without fear or anxiety?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  I suppose it depends the value you place on life, or the faith you have in the afterlife.  Yet, I am convinced that death is a personal matter.  It isn’t a shared experience.  We must face it alone.  Oh, sure, a loved one can hold our hand while we expire.  But, to actually experience death is left to the one who is dying.

Scripture tells us that our life is but a vapor.  We are here today and on the morrow we are no more.  While it is true that in the scope of eternity our earthly existence is minuscule, but in our finite state, this short life is all we know.  Life, then, takes on extreme significance.  What do we do with these numbered years?  How do we maximize their effectiveness?  During our earthly years we have few boundaries.  We live life large, so to speak.  Our bodies are not confined to a two by six-foot box.  What about our spirits?  Do we live as large in the spirit?  Are there spiritual boundaries?  I’m pretty sure that our spirits are not confined to a coffin when we die.

I don’t have the answers.  I’m just supplying the questions for your consideration.  Hospital beds and caskets remind us of our mortality.  As for me, I would rather be reminded of my immortality.  For this to take place, I must be assured that my spirit does not, will not, experience sickness and dying.  With this knowledge, the thought of death doesn’t really concern me.  It seems to me that it is just necessary portal to a much fuller life in the spirit.