The Death of the Saints

My mother told me a story this evening. Her good friend, Rachel Gruber, passed away at the age of eighty-nine recently. She was a devout woman of faith, whom my mother turned to for spiritual wisdom often. She was known as a woman of great intercessory prayer and constant study of the Bible. Upon the day of her passing, her daughter observed her reading the Bible in her room. Her daugher returned later that day to find her Bible neatly placed to the side and Ms. Gruber lying on the floor. The coroner's report shows that she did not slip and fall, but that she apparently simply lay down on the floor.

As soon as I heard this story, I thought of Psalm 116:15, which reads, Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

Who knows? I am curious to know what she was reading before she passed away. Maybe God told her to lie out on the floor. Whatever happened, she passed peacefully and is in eternal bliss. Life is such a funny thing. The more we live, the closer we are to dying. And yet, if we have been renewed inwardly, the closer we are to dying, the closer we are to really living.