We were playing in the barn on our farm and, as per usual, I was exploring new things with my younger brother. I may have been about 10 years old.
One part of our explorations led me to climb on top of a row of metal fuel barrels that had been converted into animal-feed containers with wooden lids. Once on top of the barrels, I could reach things that only adults could reach.
The most interesting item at that level was the electrical fuse box that powered the lights in the barn. This was an old fuse box, and not all the fuse sockets had a glass fuse screwed into them.
Curiosity, I suppose, made me reach for a large rusty nail that was lying close by. Profound inexperience tempted me to stick the nail into an empty fuse socket.
I got a buzzing, jolting sensation that really shocked me; as in, surprised me. That jolt started a rapid series of thoughts and questions in my little brain.
Instantly, a frightening memory flashed into my mind.
I remembered hearing my parents telling the sad story of a farmer they had known in Kansas, our previous state of residence. This man had accidentally contacted an overhead electrical wire when moving a long piece of irrigation pipe on his farm. And he had died from the incident.
My own electrical shock now seemed to me a certain death sentence. I jumped down from the barrel, and went outside with my brother. I sat down on a spot between the barn and the pump house. I prepared to die. I fully believed that at any second I would complete the electrocution process.
I don’t know what part of that terminal expectation I explained to my little brother, but I remember telling him to go get Mom. But as I recall, he just stood there, watching me with an uncertain expression.
In a short time, we both apparently concluded that I wasn’t going to die after all; and I got up so we could go continue our next phase of play.
I remember four distinct times in my life when I realized I have come very, very close to death. That day probably wasn’t one of them, actually.
Especially in the past few years, Rita and I feel that we have been repeatedly impacted by the realities of death among our friends and close acquaintances. It’s our age, I suppose, along with a wide scope of connections.
We often speak and wonder about “life after death.” Through the writings of N.T. Wright, I’ve come to value the concept of “life after life.” Actually, he extends that idea to “life after life after death.”
If we accept the message of the Scriptures we believe that, in Jesus Christ, death is not a state of being; instead, death is simply the transition from one life-phase to another.
One of the best-known quotes of Jesus is: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
The Apostle Paul gives us many deeper ideas about life after life: for example, he says that if, by faith, we join Christ in his death we literally join Christ also in his life. Romans 6:8-9
The power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the reality of life after life: that death (as it was for Jesus) is not a state of being, but simply a transformation of one life phase to another.
“Therefore encourage one another with these words.” 1 Thessalonians 4:18