Stewardship of Life at Its End
“If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” —Romans 14:8
Snoopy and the Peanut’s gang creator, Charles Shultz, has been considered one of our most articulate Christian theologians. Sketching common life, his comics and movies distilled relationships’ and growing up’s challenges to simple figures and words. In child-like wonder, he named reality while also teaching the mystery of faith.
One single-frame comic depicts Charlie Brown and Snoopy sitting on a dock, gazing at a horizon joining water to sky. Charlie Brown confides to his best friend, “We only live once, Snoopy.” Seeing life as a gift Snoopy responds, “Wrong! we only die once. We live every day!”
Canine instinct recognizes the rhythm of life and the reality that we all will one day die. No one, animal or child, escapes this fate. We do not know what day we will die, so live.
Each day is a gift to be fully experienced as within God’s care. To live each day, loving and forgiving, winning and losing, working and playing,
resting and rejoicing is to experience the fullness of creation. Swing out wide each day.
A wise minister once observed, the worst thing to bring to a funeral is a bag-full of regrets.
Prayer: Dear God, you knew me before I was born. You number each hair on my head as well as each day of my earthly life. Inspire me to trust I will remain forever in your care, even when beyond the horizon of sight. Amen.