Family Lessons 159: Liberal Death

This is the John O’Gaunt Liberal Club in Lancaster, a stone’s throw from what is now the University of Cumbria, set amid the terraced houses of Primrose, haunt of students, bohemian types and other idlers. My grandfather was the steward here in the late sixties and he and the family lived in the accommodation, above. I do not suppose his employment was any particular expression of political preference seeing as he had also managed a Conservative Club in Blackburn, previously. It was at the Liberal Club, in 1969, that he had a stroke, dying soon afterwards at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary. He left behind four children, two of whom were still at primary school, while the fourth was still in the womb. Few choose when to die, so ‘Grandad Bill’ bears no blame, but wouldn’t you agree that this was dreadful timing? A young, working mother, pregnant, with two existing, lively children, now widowed and in urgent need of somewhere to live.

Death is not polite. It does not always arrange appointments with plenty of notice; neither does it always keep the ones it pretends to make. It does not wait till our affairs are ordered or our ambitions fulfilled or our goals satisfied. It does not tarry till we have mended relationships, watched the children grow up and fly the nest, or see the grandchildren marry. Rather, it is like a hunter, stalking its prey: lurking, watching, waiting…pouncing, seizing, striking.

The question is not 'will Death come?', but am I ready for it now? Psychologically, perhaps, we never can be, and those with loving marriages and doting families will never feel there is a good time to leave them, but spiritually we can be ready and waiting. Knowing and trusting in the Lord Jesus’ atoning death and conquering resurrection means that we need not be afraid of our hell-bent stalker. Our Jesus delivered the death-blow to Death, offering life and vitality to all who come again to Him, repenting. So may we care for the widows and provide for the orphans, but may we also ensure our own souls are ready to go, for you are being stalked, even now, as you read this.

So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

“O Death, where is your sting?

O Hades, where is your victory?”

1 Corinthians 15:54-56, New King James Version

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