The grace to die...

“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” – Luke 23:46

I have sat at the bedside of many dying people over the years. As I visited we would talk about death and dying. I asked, “Are you ready to say, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit?” Many said, “Yes, I am.” Some said, “Not yet.” We talked about what it would mean for them to be ready to say these words. For some, there was still someone they wished to see before they departed this world. For others, there was someone they were struggling to forgive. Whatever the answer, I worked to help the unmet need to be met.

Most of us, reading this meditation, see our day of destiny with death as some distant, future event; there may be some reading this for whom that day is not so distant. Life is terminal; we do not get out of this world alive. Someday we will have to let go of our life and give it back to our Creator. Pray for the grace to say, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” – Ron Friesen