Do we have a feeling when death is near? Do we know that our time is coming to a close? Are we oblivious to the void? Do you sometimes feel like it is right around the corner, lurking like the angel of death ready to grab you? Or do you feel like it is going to be brutal, suffering, and painful? 

Every person I’ve watched take their last breath has looked peaceful. They’ve inhaled a lung full of air and exhaled one last time. I get to thinking about inhaling and exhaling a lot and what it sounds like. They say the Hebrew word for LORD is Yahweh which can be pronounced as YH sounds like (inhale) and WH sounds like (exhale). So it would be YH-WH (inhale – exhale). So the last sound you make before dying is the sound of the LORD. That’s not a coincidence. When that last breath comes to the person, peace comes too. The pain, fight, and suffering they felt, if any, fades away. Sickness is not present and death is not the future, but now the past. 

I feel like we take our lives for granted and things that should matter to us don’t mean much. Things like Saturday morning breakfast with the family, Sunday congregation handshakes, surprise phone calls from your grandma, or letters from an old friend. These things are overlooked in our modern world. Just like that ole country song says back when “a coke was coke, and crack’s what you were doing when you were cracking jokes.” Death is overlooked in our modern world, too, until you have to look it in the face and in its dark black eyes thats deep and never ending. Your mind goes blank, and life flashes before your eyes and you wish you paid attention to your surroundings because if you would’ve seen death you would’ve avoided it at all cost. You would have gone to the doctor, slowed down a little bit sooner, not drank that last drink, or taken the last hit. Maybe you could have avoided that journey or disappointment, regret, sorrow and heartbreak. We all think that we won’t be the next person. 

That’s one thing that we all learn sooner or later– Death doesn’t wait for anyone. It takes whoever it wants, whenever it wants. It’s the thief that we all hate! Death is one thing that we all have to experience at some point in our lives. It’s one thing we cannot escape, unfortunately, so don’t ignore it or stray away from it when you have a friend or loved one lose that special someone. Be there for them to comfort them because they’ll need you when their special someone leaves this world. It’s up to you to become their new special someone.