Dead or Alive

By Charlotte Riegel –

You’ve met them, people who are more alive than most. Almost too much energy sometimes. Cheerful, chatty, eyes sparkling, and seemingly dancing even when standing or sitting still.

My friend’s father, George, was like that, even at 80. He had been in a nursing home but very restless and unhappy; finding the facility stifling and confining. After communicating with the various staff at the home about ways to make George’s life more pleasant for him, yet not seeing him relax and settle in, Esther decided to take her father to her home for a while.

This was not an ideal setting. She and her teenaged daughter lived in a very small basement suite with two little bedrooms and another room that served as kitchen, dining, and living room. There was hardly room for the two residents to occupy the same space and now there were three.

George was a tall man but not heavily built. He loved his new digs even though he slept on the sofa in the living room. Esther delighted to see him dancing with his granddaughter around their living quarters, both laughing hysterically. They went everywhere together and he loved the freedom of this new living arrangements.

Esther was a devout Christian and although her father acknowledged there was a God, paid Him little heed. Now he chose to attend church with her. When he died somewhat suddenly just weeks after committing his life to following the ways of his daughter’s God, Esther grieved, and yet rejoiced at these last few months they had together, knowing they would meet again in Heaven.

At the funeral, I couldn’t help but think of George’s life as having been lived like river water caught in a cup. When running free it gurgles and sings, tumbling happily between the banks, but in a cup it looks lifeless, even while giving life to others. And now, George was free from the confines of his earthly body, free to dance and sing, and fly.

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18 NIV).

Quote: “Thou art not dead! Thou art the whole of life that quickens in the sod.” Charles Hanson