Eddie

We've been praying for Eddie, who had brain tumor, for several months. I received a beautiful email from his daughter a little while ago, informing me that he entered Eternity on October 3, his 64th birthday.

She spoke of the time at home, and the sweet privilege of caring for him - a privilege I can share passionately with, because of the time I spent with my father during his final days, in 1991 -

and all I can think, beyond even my sorrow for my friend's grief, is that there are people who would arbitrarily "relieve suffering" by terminal anesthesia, or euthenasia.

Ours has become a self-centered, narcissistic culture, concerned not with the ultimate wellbeing of our loved ones (do we even know how to truly love, any more?) but with our own convenience, our own deliverance from inconvenience or suffering or self-sacrifice.

My dear friend wrote of her father's final days - "I would gladly have spent ten years caring for him again!" she wrote, and I know what she meant. We are deeply altered (altared?) by such proximity to suffering and Dying.

She wrote of the peacefulness of his passing - how God granted all their desires for his final moments -

How many people are deprived of the grace of these sufferings by impatient family and medical personnel who unnecessarily hasten the end of life, lacking understanding of the utter redemptive beauty of allowing God to choose when life begins and ends?

We've become a utilitarian people - God help us, it's getting worse all the time - and if this election goes badly, we'll be seeing even worse, at a greatly accelerated pace.