There have been several specific moments in my life, special moments that I want to address here. In fact, I felt a sanctity in those moments, triggered by an event that changed my life.
The first time I felt this sacredness was at the birth of my eldest daughter, Eden. Despite the pain and fear of childbirth, there was something uplifting in the room. And as the birth progressed, I did experience a kind of spiritual ascension.
To this day, 30 years later, I have not forgotten that feeling. I also experienced this with the births of my three sons.
In my opinion, there must be something special in that moment when life is born.
This moment is so significant that holiness is really connected to it.
“The Sanctity of Life.”
But then, to my great surprise, I experienced that feeling again, exactly the same emotional experience. But this time it was when my terminally ill father died at home. I was there in those moments and the experience of holiness that had gripped me during childbirth was suddenly fully there again. It appeared suddenly and unexpectedly, even at the time of death.
I experienced it again three years later when my father-in-law Ludwig Schneider died. I was with him in the room when he gave his soul back to the Creator. And there was also a feeling of holiness in the room. I now understood the “sacredness of death.”
But why am I writing about it now? Because earlier this month I accompanied my eldest daughter Eden during her first the birth.
I was there when my first granddaughter was born. And once again the sacred was in the room with us and accompanied us in these moments that were so exciting and encouraging.
As I lay in bed later, tired from the experience, I thought about this feeling that has accompanied me for so long in such critical and important moments in life. In moments of farewell to life and in moments of rebirth. Then I suddenly remembered the verse from the book of Job:
“The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away…”
I realized that God is present in the moments in which He gives life, and in the moments in which He takes life. He is literally present with His whole being at this event.
And that’s the real reason these experiences of birth and death give me exactly the same feeling. A feeling of connectedness with the divine. A sense of divine presence.
God in His glory and in His person accompanies us when we come into life and when we leave it.
“Blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21)
Amen.
