PICAYUNE — The terrible human toll of the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile remind us of the fragile nature of human life. We think often of the fact that we are human and must eventually die. Each of us was given a one way ticket and whether it is taken up in childhood, or at a ripe old age the span of a human life is a mere blip on the radarscope of history.

Different folks respond to the question of life after death indifferent ways:

Many deny any interest in the matter and refuse to think about it.

Some believe there is nothing beyond the few years we live on earth; when we die we are gone as though we never existed.

Others are afraid of death because they do not know what will happen in the hereafter.

While Christians do not know what to expect in the next life, they believe the promise of the Lord that, just as he has been with us in this life, he will be with us in the next life.

Many people of every generation since Jesus have trusted his promise to his disciples: “You believe in God, believe in me also. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not true I would have told you so. I am going there to prepare a place for you... I will come back and take you to be with me.”

You will remember that the earliest Christians were Jerusalem Jews but when they were persecuted and scattered they shared the good news of salvation with the Gentiles. The Apostle Paul, set about to inform the Gentile converts about their new found faith.

When the converts were assured of eternal life they were very curious about it and began to ask serious questions. Paul answered their inquiries by letter. For example, he wrote to the church in Philippi that their eternal citizenship was in heaven, and that, when their time came, their bodies would be changed to be like the body of the Savior.

When he wrote to the Roman congregation about God’s plans for the future he included the redemption of nature as well as mankind.

He wrote to the Corinthians that, when they die, they would occupy a new kind of body; one that would be suited to the spiritual dimension.

He pointed out that dying simply consisted of entering a spiritual body, leaving behind the old body with its weaknesses. Then he praised God for victory over sin and death.

When I was a young man my father had two near-death experiences which he described in detail. The first came about when he was serving a church on the Red River in Southern Oklahoma. Mother called to let me know that Dad was in the hospital with severe chest pains — a heart attack. He apparently died on the examination table but, after code blue procedures, he revived. Later, when he was out of danger, he told me that he floated above the doctors and nurses as they worked on his body to revive him. He said that he remembered there were two doctors and three nurses in the room and that he was quite interested but not distressed when one of the doctors said, “We’ve lost him.” Then he seemed to black out for a moment and awoke to hear them say, “He’s back with us. He’s going to make it.”

The second experience came about 10 years later when he and mother were serving as faith missionaries among the Cherokee Indians in the Cookson Hills of Eastern Oklahoma. The heart problem had gotten worse and Dad was weak and short of breath when he made the effort to walk. One night he awakened Mother to let her know he was in trouble. I don’t remember how she managed to get him to the hospital in Tahlequah, probably with the help of the retired County Sheriff who lived nearby.

When Dad arrived at the hospital he was barely alive and, after the attempt to revive him failed, was pronounced dead — until someone noticed a slight movement of his eyelids. A second attempt restored him to life. He described the experience like this: “I was moving down a narrow valley when someone joined me and, as we viewed the scene before me, I saw people moving in the distance. My companion explained that the people lived in that beautiful place. It was a pleasant experience and when it was time for me to come back I was reluctant to return.”

I was fascinated at what my father had experienced and wanted to know what he concluded about it. I shall never forget his response. “I found that death is not a tragedy but a wonderful thing. It has changed my whole view of life. I now realize that we spend a lot of energy worrying about unimportant things. The most important issue in life is to have a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ. All else is, by comparison, unimportant.”

Several years after my father’s near-death experiences the phenomenon was observed and reported by many researchers beginning with Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and Raymond A. Moody. The near-death experience cannot be said to scientifically prove life after death, but I believe it does give a glimpse of the beyond.

Back in 1944, about two years after my father’s first near-death experience, the world famous psychotherapist Carl Jung went through a similar experience during a heart attack. In a letter a few months later he wrote these words:

“What happens after death is so unspeakably glorious that our imaginations and our feelings do not suffice to form even an approximate conception of it.”

As Paul explained to the folks in the church in Corinth, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” 1Corinthians 2:9