A Very Special Date

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 24^th will be my 2^nd 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 24^th 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.