It's sad that we have to face death in the springtime, a season that promises life more than any other. But, many times, that's not the hand we're dealt.

At times, death shows its face early and comes slowly. Some people I know are waiting patiently for some disease to take its final toll so they can close there eyes one last time. Others, in the prime of life and expecting to live out lifelong dreams during upcoming retirement years, find that death sneaks up and envelopes them when they are not looking. Still others, young and full of life, worry free and seemingly with their whole lives ahead of them, find that death cruelly grabs them and snatches them away from their families and friends and fun when they least expect it.

One thing is for sure: Death is as unique as the individual who experiences it. And it always leaves us asking "Why?"

I like to think of death not as an ending, but as a new beginning. A soul gone from our presence is still a soul. A life taken from our field of vision is still seen in some far away realm. Henry Van Dyke summed it up when he wrote:

"I am standing upon a seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

"Then someone at my side says, 'There, she is gone!' 'Gone where?'

"Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.

"Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says. 'There, she is gone!' there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, 'Here she comes!'

"And that is dying."*

I have not lost a mother or father, brother, son or daughter, or spouse to death. My heart goes out to those who have. I do not know from experience how that pain might feel. My prayer is that God may bless you with strength and comfort and good memories, and that you may find peace through His Son, Christ Jesus.

* From "Gone From My Sight: The Dying Experience," by Barbara Karnes, RN. Copyright 1986.