I'm huddled in the bed trying to find some warmth while waiting for Mom to trade in her earthly garments for her heavenly home. With every steady breath, Mom ticks the minutes away. There is every indication that death is just hours away, but those hours can sometimes feel like eternity. When I came home, Daddy looked exhausted. He sleeps in the room with Mom and wakes with every change in breathing and every little sound. I knew his exhaustion had reached its limit when he took me up on my offer to sleep in Mom's room so he could get some rest. Personally I believe death gets a bad rap. We tend to fight death and insulate ourselves, when in reality death on earth is just the beginning of life eternal without the tears and pain. I once heard it described as shedding a tattered overcoat for a eternal garment. What woman doesn't want a new outfit? Looking back I believe Mom has been caught between heaven and earth for the last few months. A few months ago she swore Dad swapped houses while she was at the beauty shop. Her story remained the same over the months. The house was exactly like the old one, just in a different location. Could her spirit have known what her flesh did not? Although death is hard to watch, beauty can come from the ashes of death. Mom has been happier the last few months than she has been in years. Is it possible that the closer we get to heaven, the things that hold us down and hold us back begin to fade? Does the bitter pettiness of earth fade as our eternal home begins to materialize before our spiritual eyes? Perhaps the glazed unfocused eyes of the dying aren't unfocused at all; perhaps at that moment their eyes are intensely fixated on what should have been their focus all along, if life didn't get in their way and block their heavenly view that now on deaths door seems in perfect focus.
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