The Anguish Of Twins
Recently, we celebrated the passing of Joy McSpadden. We have attended several services of late for dear friends who have gone on to glory.
Some time ago I shared how death, to a Christian, is much like birth. I wrote, "We spend our first nine months in the womb, comfortable, warm, and with all our needs provided. We don't have a care or a worry. Everything is perfect. And then we are born. Our eyes are opened and we experience totally unimaginable joys. We can see what we never imagined. We can enjoy pleasures that we never dreamed existed. We can communicate with others, have relationships, love and be loved. And it lasts, not for nine months, but possibly ninety years!
“And then we die. And our eyes again are opened. We are welcomed into an environment of previously unimaginable joys. Our understanding is expanded and we experience emotions that never existed before. Relationships are so much more real than ever before and we communicate on a deeper level in absolute truth. And it lasts, not for nine months, not for ninety years, but for all eternity!
“As the fetus cannot possibly imagine the joys of life outside the womb, so we cannot imagine the joys that await us beyond the grave."
Sitting in the memorial service for Joy, I began to think about the anguish of twins. There is a special bond between twins that begins in the womb. For nine months the two twins have been intimately connected together. They have been wrapped around each other. Every movement one twin makes the other shares. Then suddenly, without warning, one slips out the birth canal and is gone!
If the second twin, left alone in the womb, could talk, he would probably express fear, sadness, loneliness. But only for a short while. Soon they will be together again to share a life-long bond that the rest of us never quite understand.
We said goodbye to our sister Joy. We miss her and are sad that we can no longer see her bright smile. But it's temporary. Soon we will be with her again in a much better place.
When a baby is born, we don't morn the end of the pregnancy. No, we celebrate the new life. And when a Christian dies, though we are sad, yet we can celebrate their new life in glory. So it was fitting, at the conclusion of our sister's Celebration of Life, we closed with the joyful song, "I'll fly away". The third verse says it best
Just a few more weary days and then,
I'll fly away;
To a land where joy shall never end,
I'll fly away (I'll fly away)