Death Is in the Details
Stop glossing over the grief, and the gore, of lives lost.
[posted 1/25/2013]
We live in a culture that runs from true death. Sure, we see death all of the time in our movies, television, and video games, but rarely are we confronted with the actual death of another human being. Death has become more conceptual to us than physical. ...
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Steve Dawson
Thank you for this article. As a society we cannot make intelligent choices without all of the facts. I read the description of Noah Pozner's body and wept. It's painful but necessary to rip the mask of "Hollywood" death and see the real thing. It takes a strong stomach but an essential exercise.
Paul Coneff
I really, really appreciate this article. And as we have a chance to minister to those who have lost loves ones to a brutal, senseless murder we can listen to their stories - and we can also connect their stories to Jesus' story where He lost a loved one, His own cousin, John the Baptist, to a brutal, senseless murder, as the "Man of Grief and Sorrows" that Isaiah 53 talks about. And because Jesus has gone through a similar experience as the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," (Rev. 13:8), He can identify with them, taking all their suffering, grief and loss to death on the cross, along with the cries of their hearts ask "Why?" just as Jesus did as He was dying. And then, adding even more to HIS plan of salvation, Jesus rose again "with healing in HIS wings," (Malachi 4:2). Because of this we can have listen to them and offer them hope.
Pamela Mathews
I'm glad this article was posted. We do dismiss the reality that is involved in violent death in this country. I immediately thought about what it was like for the people who had to identify the bodies of these children (and others in similar violent situations.) Not to get political (I mean that sincerely), but I just learned that one of the reasons Diane Feinstein is such a gun control advocate is that she saw the bodies of her boss and colleague after they had been shot. I imagine that changes you.
Tim Fall
Good points, Courtney. Death cannot be ignored by those of us who belong to the One who has defeated it. You remind me of C.S. Lewis's position too: that death is an abomination in this fallen creation and an affront to God, and as such it is to be avoided rather than embraced; he also pointed out that it is only be being baptized into Christ's own death that we have the hope that sustains us in the face of our own physical mortalities. Blessings, Tim (timfall.wordpress.com)
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