She was lurking with intent. I hadn’t paid much attention. Nevertheless I had taken only a few steps out of the room into the corridor when the nurse came straight up to me. She seemed a little anxious, nervous even, maybe upset and apologised for stopping me. That was fine. How can I help?

And the story emerged that a man in a room on the same floor had died – alone. There was no immediate family and it seemed that there were issues with the few extended family. And now he had just died still alone. He had been reading his Bible all day and a lot over many days and could I … is it possible … I don’t know what to ask you … please feel free to decline … I don’t know whether you’re allowed … I don’t want to bother you but … could you pray or do something?

What a compassionate person! I asked a few questions – name, any known religion – and with only his name in my head I said that I would commend him to God (I know the structure of the rite) and so I followed her until she paused at a doorway and I entered a somewhat darkened room. I stepped into the room and asked for God’s guidance, then taking a few more steps and speaking his name, I introduced myself, and approached the bed. I talked to him briefly that I had heard he was reading his Bible and that Jesus is the person one meets in the Bible and he is the resurrection and the life and then I commended him to God. It was solemn. I was sad that he had been alone except for the nurses who were coming and going and the nurse who had just checked on him and found he had died (and came and found me). But in Christ, one is never alone.

I left the room and the nurse was around a corner and I hadn’t realised that she had actually been just outside and heard everything. She was more upset but also more relieved that I had said what I had said – and I hoped she heard that for those in Christ, though death is individual and personal, we are never alone for Jesus is with us always as our resurrection and life. I asked if she wanted to talk or wanted me to pray for her and she declined and she walked me out with a sincere ‘thank you’.

Living is precious – it is and it should be for everyone. Births are special. And death is not just a ‘stopping of an animal’ but each person’s death has significance. That is why we have dying, death, and funeral rituals across time and around the world – to acknowledge that living is precious and the deceased was not insignificant. For Christians, there is a twin focus in its dying, death, and funeral rituals – yes, obviously the person dying or deceased and Jesus who has defeated death’s power and has been with his people in this world long before they enter the world to come (Romans 6:3-11). Jesus isn’t a static ‘lucky charm’ but our living Lord who still carries the scars of the cross and testifies that we precious to God, that every conception and birth is precious to God, and that our deaths are not the end at all. That is why there is hope and confidence when death is near because for the Christian, Jesus is always nearer!

GS