table of plenty

I read something yesterday here that rang so sweet and true.  Stopped me in my tracks.  Took the breath right out of me.

What she wrote, was this:
And in his passing from the land of the dying to the land of the living, we have seen the hand of God on his life. Now he knows fully, even as he is fully known. 


What Emily was writing about was her father-in-law who is now home.  Home forever.  And at last.  


It was that first line, "passing from the land of the dying to the land of the living".  


I've always thought of death as actually a birthing.  We have doulas and midwives, obstetricians and waiting joyfully family at a birth.  Showers and celebrations.  Birthing into forever should not be so different.  But we struggle and it is.  So hard to say goodbye, even if it is only for now.


 I have not ever seen anyone die. The sacred moments of last breaths here in the land of the dying are truly a mystery to me.  The return home to the land of the living for another I have never experienced.  Being gathered up to the Lord.  


I don't have a robustly crafted post to expound upon all that "death" really means, or how we view it explains us and can define our own lives.


All I have is the awe that came upon me as I read those words and felt a tilt.  Bind that to my heart, God.  The arriving HOME as homecoming; Home-going.  It isn't an ending at all.  It is the beginning: of living in the land of the living.


The land of the living.  


Home in the land of the living.  Tell me that doesn't rise up sweet in you, too?