Where
did we ever come up with the romantic notion that the best way to die is in our
sleep? First things first, when it comes to dying, there really isn’t a “good”
way to go. Why? Because you’re dead! Dying in your sleep I believe comes with a
lot of potential pitfalls.

The
first being if you die in your sleep, when do you first realize your dead? At
least in a car accident you can see it coming! You scream throw up your hands,
have your life pass before your eyes, and enter into the death place knowing how
you got there. Dying in your sleep your never sure if you died and are in
heaven OR you are dreaming and just when your excited about the prospect of
seeing God, surprise. It was all a dream.

The
other problem with dying in your sleep is the inconvenience it puts on everyone
else, especially if that “everyone else” was sleeping next to you. Nothing
starts the day off on the wrong foot like waking next to someone who is dead.
Dead people are a pain in the butt. They expect you to do everything for them. They
assume you are going to treat them tenderly and dignified yet they do nothing
to assist us. When you’re dead someone else has to dress you, which is really a
challenge because you can’t help push your arm through the jacket.

We
dress dead people in clothes so perhaps we should wear clothes to bed and then
at least when you croak your ready to roll. Not to mention I find it difficult
deciding which tie matches the suit we are going to bury you in. We dress
people up to throw them in a hole and toss dirt on top! Why? Why aren’t we
buried in the same outfit we came in on? Talk about a waste of perfectly good
suit or dress. I say we are buried “au natural”.

Some
people leave gifts and memorials at the gravesite of a dearly departed. Maybe a
teddy bear or a bottle of Jack Daniels depending on the type of person they
were in life. These gestures by the way are touching only to those of us that
can appreciate them, in other words the “still here” folks.

Notice
too that these bottles and necklaces and teddy bears and handkerchiefs and what
not always mysteriously vanish from the gravesite. In other words someone is
leaving this tribute of love and someone else is stealing it and using it on
the living. Seems a little creepy giving a stuffed animal to a living child
that you had ripped off from a dead child’s gravesite.

Again
the ultimate truth is that all the pomp and circumstances we go through for the
dead is actually for the living. The dead person is long gone and aware only of
where their eternal destiny is established. If they died in sins their arrival
is bleak to say the least. If they committed their soul to Christ then they
actually get to meet him and enter into eternal rest. That’s why if they got
there by falling off a cliff, it’s actually comforting. They are sure they
aren’t dreaming and realize they are more awake now then they have ever
experienced before. You on the other hand can keep your teddy bear.