For the Christian, the person who leads a life in close fellowship with God, it appears that when the earthly dwelling is being stripped away, when bodily functions cease, the ultimate dignity is still preserved in a soul that is attuned to God the Word and the Word of God! Yes, it is true that the human measure of dignity erodes and the human observer sees the wreckage that is inherited from the fall into sin. God and the discerning Christian eye see beyond the perishable and looks in amazement and wonder at the imperishable that remains in Gods children even to the point when they cross Jordan. Edersheim (The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, p.129-133), talking about the circumstances of the birth of Jesus, tells us the following: If we think of Jesus as the Messiah from heaven, the surroundings of outward poverty, so far from detracting, seem most congruous to His Divine character. Earthly splendour would here seem like tawdry tinsel, and the utmost simplicity like the clothing of the lilies which far surpassed all the glory of Solomons courtTwo impressions are left on the mind: that of utmost earthly humility, in the surrounding circumstances, and that of inward fitness, in the contrast suggested by themThat on such slender thread, as the feeble throb of Infant-life, the salvation of the world should hang and no special care watch over its safety, no better shelter provided than a stable, no other cradle than a manger! And still it is ever so. On what slender thread has the continued life of the Church often seemed to hang; on what feeble throbbing that of every child of God with no visible outward means to ward off danger, no home of comfort, no rest of ease. But, Lo, children are Jehovahs heritage! One great mark of the Lords coming to earth and walk on earth was His lack of attachment to the things that perish. Stripped of all earthly tinsel in Edersheims words His pure relationship to God is what remains. This is also the wonderful picture seen in Gods children when they, in Gods providence, are gradually stripped of all that perishes, while jealously holding on to that mysterious state in which the Word of God shall stand forever.
In the last analysis it is our conception of death which decides our answers to all the questions life puts to us. - Dag Hammarskjold (1905-1961)