Thinking About Death - Ecclesiastes 7:2-4

"A good reputation is more valuable than costly perfume. And the day you die is better than the day you are born. Better to spend your time at funerals than at parties. After all, everyone dies—so the living should take this to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for sadness has a refining influence on us. A wise person thinks a lot about death, while a fool thinks only about having a good time." My wife recently passed away and so I have been thinking a lot about death--not only my wife's death, but death in general. While my considerable thoughts about death may indeed be a psychological and emotional response to my grief, in the book of Ecclesiastes the Teacher says it is wise to think about death and doing so has much spiritual value. The sadness we suffer from the loss of friends or loved ones refines our character; it develops us spiritually; it prepares us for eternity. Contemplating death helps us focus on living for God! The only way human beings enter into eternal life is through the death of the physical body, unless you happen to be living when Jesus returns. In other words, you have to die to live eternally--death is the means by which we enter into eternal life. So the Teacher is saying that when you fully process the fact that physical death is your entrance into eternal life, then you will more closely consider how you live your life in this world to be certain you are being all that God wants you to be for eternal life with Him.