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Current Issue: Letter from the Editor

I waited pensively just outside the door, biting my lip. A stilted atmosphere of lonely formality and finality seemed to overshadow the people moving quietly about. Their voices were muted, their dress somber. Loud, hoarse sobs, clearly those of a man, carried through from the other room. And now it was my turn. I walked through the door—and there she was.

Ashleigh lay in an overly elaborate box that seemed far too small, eyes closed, hands clasped. My first glimpse of death lay before me in the shape of a teenage girl. She looked like a china doll, her face pale, with skin so waxy it seemed surreal. Someone had dressed her in the latest winter fashion, complete with a warm, trendy coat. What’s the point of that? I thought. She won’t feel the cold now. As I looked down at the still, small figure before me, I could feel the loss, confusion, and sorrow that seemed to fill every nook and cranny of the room.

“She was too beautiful for this world,” the funeral director said solemnly, waving his arms. “I’m sure Ashleigh will be watching over her family with her father. She’ll always live on in our hearts.”

His words seemed to underscore the despair I felt. As Ashleigh’s favorite song played, the teary faces around me offered quiet assurance to the mother and comforted a sobbing, bewildered child. What a waste! was all I could think. What a shocking waste of life!

Losing someone is never easy. Trying to peer past the trite platitudes without looking through rose-colored glasses can be hard to do without tears. The squabbles, pranks, jokes, experiences, and funny little idiosyncrasies that made up that person are simply gone. Everyone who knew him or her is affected by the loss. And, as so often happens when someone is gone, those left behind think, Is death the end? What happens now? These are questions that priests, preachers, and philosophers throughout history have tried to answer.

What does the Bible say?

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