Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Of babies and boxes...

I have been reading When the Game is Over, It All Goes Back In the Box, by John Ortberg. Ortberg is a master of taking simple truths and presenting them in fresh and challenging ways. The book, obviously, is about the Game that is your life and the fact that at the end of the Game, kings and queens, pawns, bishops, and knights all go into the same box, a casket, while any castles we have built pass to others to do as they will. So in other words, its a pretty depressing book, but it's worth reading because we tend not to think much about the reality that this world and its "stuff" are neither permanent nor worthy of our full devotion.

One of the lines from the book that I have mulled over a bit in my mind these past few days is the following:
Children were once told that babies are brought by the stork, but they were invited to say goodbye at the deathbed of someone they loved. Now they are given lots of biological information about how babies arrive but are told that grandpa is sleeping in a beautiful garden with flowers.

1 comment:

Garden Girl said...

Yes, society tends to want to insulate children from death now. I am so thankful that my parents took me to many funerals growing up. Two for cousins about my age. While I don't come from a believing family, I saw the truth that death comes to all. I also saw, during those times, a dependence on their church to carry them through. There was a hope that beyond this earth was something better. It wasn't until later in my life that I found out about the falling short of the glory of God and needing a "bridge" by the way of Jesus to get to God, both in this life and in the one to come..... Now, I want to give my children both pieces of the puzzle.