Life Doesn't Stop
WHEN my sister and I came home from school one day, our mom told us that our grandfather had died. It was hard to believe that I wouldn't see him during our summer vacation. I went up to my room and began to cry. Soon mom came upstairs and sat on the side of my bed. She said, ``You know, Bampa would be very sorry to see you so sad. You don't believe that his love and goodness have died, do you?''
I wasn't sure. I went to a Christian Science Sunday School, and in Sunday School I had been taught that man is immortal. But I had never thought about what that means. I had to think about it now. Probably one of the first things I ever learned in Sunday School was that God is always with us. No matter what, you and I can depend on God. His help and care and power are always available.
My mom, my sister, and I would usually read the Bible every day before we left for school. The Bible assures us that nothing can separate us from the love of God. In fact, Paul, one of Christ Jesus' followers, said this pretty forcefully. He wrote in his letter to the Romans, ``I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord'' (8:38, 39).
So, even though Bampa had passed on, he had not been separated from God's love. Man, according to the Bible, is the image and likeness of God. He is an idea in divine Mind. He is formed by Mind and made in God's likeness, so he has the perfection, goodness, and immortality of Mind. God, the divine Mind, doesn't forget His ideas and He doesn't lose them. Bampa and I are both God's ideas. This helped me begin to see that when I read in the Bible about Jesus' raising the dead or being resurrected himself, he was helping us to see that life doesn't have anything to do with the human body, but with man's relation to God.
I think Jesus was trying to help us see that nothing can end man's relation to God. Even though I couldn't see my grandfather anymore, he was still very special in God's eyes. Like all of us, he continues to be God's beloved child.
This was helpful. I could see that I didn't have to worry about Bampa. It was good to know that the people we love are always under God's care. But it didn't take care of everything. Inside I still felt sad because I missed Bampa. After a while, though, I began to see that nothing could take away the memories I had of all the good things that we had done together. For example, we used to pick blueberries in the backyard, and we would sometimes sit on the front porch and talk about things in the Bible. He studied it every day. I can still think about his love, and the things that he said to me.
As a result, I have learned that death didn't harm him and it didn't hurt me. It hadn't done anything at all, because it couldn't take either of us away from the love of God. In fact, I have learned even more about life and love and God.
Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science, writes in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: ``Death is but another phase of the dream that existence can be material. Nothing can interfere with the harmony of being nor end the existence of man in Science.'' Farther down on the page she continues, ``God, Life, Truth, and Love make man undying'' (p. 427). It's been important to learn more about man's relation to God and to see that man is immortal. Now it doesn't seem so theoretical, either. I am glad to know that both Bampa and I remain under God's care.
BIBLE VERSE
Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither have entered
into the heart of man
the tings which God hath
prepared for them that love him.
But God hath revealed themm unto us
by his Spirit:
for the Spirit searcheth all things,
yea, the deep things of God
I CORINTHIANS 2:9,10