I recently wrote about conducting my first Funeral Service for a friend’s Father who had suddenly died. In the week leading up to the Funeral, each of my kids asked me various ranging from what you do at Funerals, whether being cremated (Dad - what does being “cromated” mean?) is better than being buried, and whether my friend’s Father was in now in heaven. Death is less an enemy and more a curiosity when you are 8 years old.
All great questions, providing a wealth of conversation fodder over the following weeks. I suppose these aren’t your normal dinner conversation, but you know what - they probably should be as I want my kids to have answers to their questions. The Bible certainly doesn’t shy away from death in the same way we tend to. So over the last few weeks, we have started to look at what the Bible says about Death, in a way that kids can understand. Here’s a first crack and what we have started (and will continue) looking at and discussing:-
- There’s no such thing as the Disney “circle of life” - the world would have us believe that death is simply part of the “circle of life” - you live and then you die, just one big eternal loop that we are all caught up in. Balderdash! The Bible opens and closes with death no where to be seen; it’s only once mankind disobey God that death and decay enter the scene. As much as death is part of the “natural” life we experience as humans, it certainly was not God’s intent and will be completely done away with in the new heavens and earth (Revelation 21:4).
- Death is grievously sad and breaks relationships - death (and the subsequent funeral) are the harbingers of such sadness and sorrow, largely because it breaks relationship. My friend can no longer see her Dad, she can no longer give him a hug. Its important for our kids to appreciate and understand that death is terribly sad and that feeling and expressing this sadness is right and normal. The stiff upper lip just doesn’t cut it.
- Death is not the end, nor is it the last word - as sad as death is, I want my kids to know that it is not the end. You dont simply sit in a hole in the ground when you die. 1 Corinthians 15 speak about Jesus’ followers being raised to life with a new body
- Jesus gives kids hope in the face of death - last but not least, knowing Jesus gives my kids hope that although death will inevitably come, it is not the end, and that he will look after them. He can be trusted - even in death.
As it happened, the shadow of death loomed larger in the last week as my wife’s uncle died after battling cancer for the last few months of his life. Even more questions followed, with a deepening appreciation that death is hard, sad and fundamentally not right. Amidst the questions, my younger daughter came to me and exclaimed
“You know Dad, Uncle Cecil is in the best place! We have to stay here and miss him, but he gets to be with Jesus.”
Maybe kids understand more about death than we give them credit for?
