What’s in a date? Are
there dates that you remember and hold near and dear to your heart? We all have
dates we will remember forever. For me I
will definitely remember the day I met Alessandro or the day he proposed. Definitely
our wedding day! And of course I will remember our children’s birth dates.
But there is another date that is very special to me. That date is March 24. It’s an unassuming
date but it has two very special significances for me. The first is that it was
the date my dear cousin Paolo was born.
He was born in Italy .
He was born premature and despite all odds he survived! Having been born in Italy meant we here in Canada were not
close enough, physically, to see him grow up day to day. But we were with him and my aunt and uncle
when he was learning how to walk. It is
one summer that I will always remember.
His giggle. His beautiful eyes.
The way he would wake me in the morning.
So precious and so special to me.
But the years went by and lives
got busy and trips to Italy
stopped for one reason or another. The
last time I saw Paolo was on my layover in Italy
while on our way to Malta
for our honeymoon. Paolo was 13. He had grown so much and was now a shy
teenager. But his smile and his
beautiful eyes were the same.
Unfortunately, Paolo passed away
on June 30, 2010 at the age of 20 of Leukemia.
At the time of his death, I had already been questioning certain aspects
of my faith. But his death brought me to
a new area of questioning.
Having been raised a Catholic, I
was taught that when someone dies they either go to heaven, hell or
purgatory. Only the innocent go to
heaven, so I was taught. The evil go to
hell and the ones that were in between stayed in purgatory. They would remain in limbo awaiting to enter
heaven. So after my cousin’s death I
wondered, what really happens when we die? I could not understand how a dead
loved one could be “resting in with peace,” so to speak, if they were in
limbo. Also, if they were in heaven
watching down on us, how could they be free from pain if all they see is their
family members suffering day to day with their loss?
Alessandro tried to comfort me as
best as he could. He tried to give me
bible scriptures. I didn’t want to hear
what he had to say. So he gave me
something to read that he thought may help comfort me. He gave me a brochure called “When Someone
You Love Dies…”
I read the brochure cover to
cover but it wasn’t what was written in the brochure per se that helped comfort
me; it was what I read in the bible! The
message in the bible gave me hope…a real hope!
First the bible helped to clarify the state of the dead. In Psalm 146:6 I read, “His spirit goes out,
he returns to the ground; on that very day his thoughts perish.” Also, in Ecclesiates 9:5 it says, “For the
living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing at all, nor do they
have any more reward, because all memory of them is forgotten.” Verse 10 of
this chapter reads, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do with all your might,
for there is no work nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom in the Grave where
you are going.” These three scriptures
helped me realize that when we die, then all of us dies. There is nothing that lingers on and sits in
limbo. Jesus himself described death
like having fallen asleep. That is how he described his friend’s Lazarus’ death
(John 11:11, 13, 14). But Jesus also
spoke of a hope. He said that he was
traveling to awaken Lazarus. Jesus well
knew his friend was indeed dead and not merely asleep. “Then Jesus said to them plainly: ‘Lazarus
has died…’” (John 11:14). So what was Jesus speaking of when he spoke
of awaking Lazarus? He was speaking of
the resurrection.
The dictionary meaning of
resurrection is “the act of rising from the dead.” One must have died to
actually benefit from being resurrected.
So then if we are to believe other teachings, if our dead loved ones
move on to heaven, hell or purgatory, why would there be a resurrection? Why
would Jesus have felt compelled to resurrect Lazarus back to earth if he was in
heaven? This questioning also leads to
the question “Then why did God need to resurrect Jesus after he was killed?”
A deeper study of the scriptures
reminds us that God never intended for mankind to die. Mankind was to live forever on the earth, an
earth that was to be cultivated into a paradise from the Garden of Eden
onward. This all can be found in the
first few chapters of Genesis. But
because Adam sinned, his sin brought death to all mankind (Romans 5:12). God put into place a new hope for mankind. It was a way for all mankind to be forgiven
their sins and the prospect to once again live forever on a paradise
earth. In John 5:28, 29, Jesus said,
while speaking to the crowd, “Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming
in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out,
those who did good things to a resurrection of life, and those who practiced
vile things to a resurrection of judgment.”
There were many other scriptures
that gave me comfort but the knowledge that my cousin was truly resting in
peace and not stuck in limbo brought real closure for me. The knowledge that
one day he, along with all my dead loved ones, will be resurrected to a life
without illness and the hope of living forever on a paradise earth brought real
joy to my heart (Revelation 21:3, 4).
Now this leads me to the second
significance of the date March 24. This
March 24th will be my 2nd year anniversary to my public
dedication to serve Jehovah God. I was
baptized on March 24, 2013, as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses after an in-depth
study of the bible. When I truly took
the time to study the bible and what Jehovah God had left behind for us, I knew
I needed to make a change. I knew in my heart that I wanted to serve Jehovah
despite the knowledge of opposition.
As sad as I still am about losing
my cousin at such a young age, I am grateful that something positive came from
it. I am ever grateful to Jehovah and Jesus because their sacrifice has allowed
us the privilege to one day live forever.
So this March 24th I will rejoice for the memories I have of
my cousin but I will also rejoice in my decision to serve Jehovah and the
promises He has in store for all mankind.
