The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom… Psalm 111:10
When my father died, I sat beside him, looking around the room, looking for him. I heard Mom say to the hospice nurse, “He was a scholar. What happened to all that knowledge? Where did his ideas go?” The blow of losing Dad’s creative intellect was almost crueler than physically losing him. Yet I didn’t despair, for I knew that Dad’s thoughts were very much intact. I knew from personal experience.
I was seventeen when I died from asthma and came back. For years I was confused about this: Why did I see my body from above? Why couldn’t anyone hear me talking? Later I came across the evidence that many people have had similar experiences. So I know that when we leave our bodies, our minds remain intact. All of our knowledge, our thought processes, our capacity to learn, even our confusion, remain.
When Dad died, I suspected that he lingered in the room as had I. Could he see me? Was he trying to speak with me? Teach me one last thing? What was he trying to say? I finally kissed his physical self good-bye—a terrible loss—to consciously embrace that which defined him best and would forever live in the eternal presence of God: his curious and capable mind, always eager to learn more of God’s character and, when asked, always willing to share. I was going to miss learning what Dad, a PhD in education, could no longer teach me. But what new things was he learning?
Someday, with years of eternal experience behind him, he will once again be my teacher.
Dear Lord, the beginning of wisdom rests in You and is therefore ours for all eternity.
