"A quiet moment's slumber, a dream away, to awake in this place where we will want to stay."

Death is the dark specter that steals lives, but God robs Death of its brief victory by receiving us into His loving arms. Death is defeated; its moment's victory is an allusion. God casts death back into the darkness. As John Donne wrote, "Death, be not proud, though some have called thee mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so....One short sleep past, we wake eternally and death shall be no more; Death thou shalt die."
 

But, as death looms near it brings value and appreciation to life. Each second can then be seen as a treasured gift to be lived fully and to be fully present. 



Death Falls Into the Darkness

 

Death falls from the dark shadows
Lurking and creeping from the looming gallows

It is always a moment's breath near

It preys and feeds on our fear

Giving it power it does not deserve
It festers and thrives to disturb

It's victory is but a brief moment
Then God's triumph is its foment

No need to worry, no need to fret
Trust God; it will all be well, yet

We are just companions on a passenger train
But this brief respite does affect our heavenly gain

So on the day when we lay dying
There is no need for tears and crying

But what will it be that we have left
Love is what only matters and is kept

So let go of all else that the world holds
For every single mortal body will one day grow cold

In this life its the intimate, loving connections
Its our honest self inventory and reflections

The things that count give and send love
Other earthly things matter little up above

There is not a period, but only a brief pause
Dark death will go fleeting past with no deadly jaws

Death is not the final victor, but only the transmitting vector
God casts the final lethal demise of this sinister specter

A quiet moment's slumber, a dream away
To awake in this place where we will want to stay

So only a brief transition to our new eternal form
Our resurrected body will be our new norm

So Death hang your head low and bow down
Banish yourself to the darkness where you were found

Stand in exile as we receive our glory crowns
Then take yourself back to Hades underground

Death falls into the darkness, so your fate it does not cast
Mindfully live as it can be unexpected and fast

A frozen stilled heartbeat, then Death is past
It is only a moment, a mere transition; it does not last.....

--Rhonda Milner

When the perishable has been clothed with
the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality,
then the saying that is written will come true:
“Death has been swallowed up in victory.” 
“Where, O death, is your victory?
    Where, O death, is your sting?”
1 Corinthians 15:54-55