It simply cannot be stated enough: you have every reason to be encouraged about life. Just look around you. God shows himself everywhere; and in all things, he shows there is no death. Where do you see the end of anything beyond the mere passing of some individual form? The seemingly lifeless branch, barren in the hand of a winter’s day past, becomes the budding star of each new spring season. Life is the stage . . . and death only a necessary character upon it whose presence adds the required tension and suspense for the viewing audience. And yes . . . of course, as it must be with any play in due time, its curtains draw closed, the act at an end. But just as a closing curtain doesn’t mean the end of the theater, so too can it be seen that the passing of life doesn’t signal its disappearance. The show goes on!