God is With Us

Posted March 26, 2020. This post is by Mac Brown, my close friend for more than thirty years:

Rev. Chris Denny’s sermon title on Sunday March 22 was God Is With Us. He challenged us to think about when we last had “seen” God.  I may not have “seen” God but I felt his presence on the preceding Saturday morning while birdwatching with some old and some new friends. Leland Ferguson had invited me, Steve, and Charles to come birdwatching on his property that morning.  It was a beautiful morning and the trees were full of singing birds to spot and then try to identify.  At first we were all about the birds but as the morning wore on conversation began to expand.  

As we finished our walk and were returned to Leland’s house, Charles, whose wife had died in October, began to talk about her death. How difficult it had been to sit by her hospital bed and helplessly watch the love of his life gradually leave him. Steve complemented Charles on how well he was handling her death and rebuilding his life and that he was an inspiration. Leland shared his experience of sitting with his brother during three bouts of pneumonia.  Each time Leland thought his brother was about to die; but it wasn’t until the third bout that he actually died. It must have felt as if his brother had died three times.

Then Steve began to tell the story of sitting with his mother during her final minutes and that the hospice nurse new exactly what would happen next and when to expect it. He told of watching as she lost consciousness, gradually lost circulation in her extremities, and her breathing became shallower and slower till it finally stopped. 

I told of a similar situation as Steve’s while sitting with Susanne as her Dad died quietly and seemingly on the schedule the hospice nurse had prepared for him.  And I remembered that during the last few minutes of his life I experienced a profound feeling of peace and wellbeing. That the process of him slipping out of this life into the next had been serene and beautiful in its own way. 

Each of us four guys had had a similar experience and in sharing these most profound of human experiences it had brought us closer to one another.  In that moment of sharing our stories I knew something special was happening and that it was a rare event. Rare in that four men, some of whom had just met for the first time two hours earlier, could share stories of life’s ultimate event. We were boldly and publically accepting the reality of death, implicitly acknowledging our own approaching deaths and the knowledge of a new life to yet be entered.

It was as if in that unusual rare moment of shared personal awareness and honesty and acceptance that we were set apart from our surroundings if only for a second.   Set apart because we had seen death for what it is. Death was no longer to be feared. Yes, death is an ending but it is also marks a new beginning.

It wasn’t until Rev. Chris asked the question during his sermon the next morning that I realized exactly what that rare event had been.  Rev. Chris asked “When have you seen God?” and I knew instantly that I had “seen” God while birdwatching with some friends and telling stories about people we loved leaving this life and entering the next.