The First Day

THIS WEEK my great-grandmother Sophia Champagne passed away at the age of 95. She was a sweet lady who lived a long and happy life, and now people are gathering in New York for her funeral tomorrow.

When my Mom told me over the phone that she had died, I took a minute to stand and look out a window to think.

We called her Mem. I got my name from her. She was Polish, and her mother Antoinette came to America all by herself when she was 15 about a century ago. She was my grandpa's mother and my Mom's grandmother. The last time I spoke to her over the phone, I had asked her how she was, and she had said that she wasn't doing very well at all. Nobody was very surprised when she passed away. Mem was very sick and very old, and it was sad to see her go.

But as I looked out the window, just letting the news sink in, I was only a little sad. More than that, I was happy for her. Looking up into the perfect blue sky, I could imagine her flying up out of her dear old, sick body to the gates of heaven, finally well again. Finally surrounded once more by all the people she had loved in her youth. Finally home, where nobody grows old or gets sick or goes away. Finally with her husband and her parents, and with Jesus. I'm sad that Mem is gone, but I know she is doing a lot better now than she ever has been.

The day after Mem passed away, my Aunt Jennifer gave birth to my new cousin Seth. Jennfier is the wife of my Dad's brother John, and Seth is their second son after Elijah, who is two years old. He is healthy and happy, and he is fortunate to have a pair of really wonderful parents.

It's always a miracle when a new baby is born. How can it be that a new person has been formed with ten fingers and ten toes and two eyes, put together exactly right, ready to breathe and eat and learn? It's marvelous to think of this system God invented, how two people's lives can result in other lives, and how a baby can enter the world with everything brand new to him.

So my family saw a death and a birth in one week, and it got me thinking about birth, life, and death. And I wonder whether we have our perspective a little backwards.

Once Jesus was visited at night by a Pharisee named Nicodemus, who knew that Jesus was from God. They spoke about how a person could enter the kingdom of God.

John 3:3-8, "[3] Jesus answered and said to him, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.' [4] Nicodemus said to Him, 'How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?' [5] Jesus answered, 'Most anssuredly, I say to you, unless on is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. [6] That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. [7] Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' [8] The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes. So is eeryone who is born of the Spirit.'"

What if life and death aren't what they seem? Jesus is saying that in order to be saved and enter God's kingdom, we must be born again through His Spirit. That means that when we put our faith in Christ, we are born again. The temporary gives way to the eternal, and eternal life starts now.

John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life."

In a way, death is like birth. For a while you're alive but haven't started living, becuase you're still inside your mother getting ready to go. But you can't stay there. After a while, you enter a world that is so full of things to see and places to go that the little dark space you knew before is like nothing.

In the same way, we only stay here in this world for a little while. We are alive in Christ because we have been spiritually reborn through faith in Him, but we haven't seen anything yet. We are just here for a while to give us time to grow. And when we are done, this time we will really start living a life so vibrant and full of God that it makes our few days here seem like a short walk down a dark hallway.

1 Corinthians 2:9-10, "[9]But as it is written, 'Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.' [10] But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God."

Because we are made new by God's Holy Spirit, we understand that God's big plan is not confined to the small number of our days. He has even more planned than He is showing us while we are running around on this earth.

Romans 6:22-23 "[22] But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. [23] For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord."

Death is not the end of everything. For a believer in Christ, it's only the beginning. As my family says goodbye to Mem and welcomes baby Seth, I cannot help but think that this week my family did not see a birth and a death, but rather two births. And while the mourners cry for Mem at her funeral, I hope that some of the same tears of joy that came with Seth's first day also come down alongside those tears of sadness, as Mem's eternal first day in Paradise finally dawns for her.


In loving memory of Sophia Champagne.