Death is a Waiting Room
My wife and I were recently visiting a
medical facility that had in the foyer a large and busy waiting room complete
with a plethora of magazines, live-broadcast TV, a colourful play area for
children and huge glass windows bathing the area in filtered and natural sunlight.
Young people talked, sent text messages or
played games on their mobile electronic devices, couples chatted, some of those
waiting read magazines or watched the TV while others waited with obvious
frustration in impatient silence.
After a time of waiting in this waiting
room we were ushered closer to where we had our appointment, to wait in a
smaller waiting area deeper within the building.
Although we did not need to wait long
there, the contrast was striking. This waiting area consisted of two rows of
chairs in part of a corridor, illuminated by tiny overhead lights in the
ceiling. It was comfortable, peaceful and quiet with only the faint murmur of
voices heard from behind adjacent closed doors. There were no magazines, TV,
children playing, people chatting nor electronic devices beeping. We,
ourselves, were actually glad to be waiting for our names to be called, as we
knew that the soon reward of our appointment was waiting for us.
As I thought about the contrast between
these two waiting areas I was reminded of a question that I had been asked a
few days earlier regarding what death is like for a Christian, and I came to
imagine the difference between life and death as being like these two waiting
areas.
Life is a like large, well-lit and busy
waiting room complete with impatience and a superfluity of distractions and
entertainments. According to a 2001 ‘Cake (band)’ song, “As soon as you're
born, you start dying.” With that premise in mind, you could even extend it to
say that from the moment of our conception, living is about being occupied
(preferably productively) while waiting for the (sometimes frightful) final
call of our name.
In striking contrast, death for the
Christian is like entering a tiny silent, tranquil waiting room with no
distractions, just a quiet intermission, anticipating the reward that comes
with the wonderful final call of our name.
According to 1 Thessalonians 4:16, at the
Second Coming of Christ the dead in Christ shall rise first (see Vs.13-17). Death
for the Christian means simply waiting patiently for three closely consecutive
rewards: 1) Resurrection, 2) A “front-row seat” to the awe-filled splendour and
majesty of the Second Coming, and 3) the final reward of an eternity with the
Redeemer.
