Death is like graduation....

As I think about death and what lies beyond death, I can't help but to relate it to graduating high school. I believe they are similar in more ways than one.

• Do you remember being in high school when you had a few friends in your same class, and then you may have had several close friends in the class just above or below you or in some cases two classes above or below. At the time you all were sad that you couldn't graduate together to go on to college or whatever was next. You may have felt abandoned and maybe a bit behind if an older friend was leaving sooner.

Now here we are 12 years later after high school, and it's hard to remember who actually graduated first among friends. And the fact that one group of friends may have graduated a year or two earlier, it seems to have very little effect on things now. So my point is, even though death is very sad at the time and not easy to experience with a friend or loved one, we must remember it is a necessary step in God's plan and years later, we won't even remember who actually graduated from this life first.

• The second similarity is about being prepared. You may remember within your group of friends that some of you were better prepared for the next step after high school. Some of you may have been taking college classes while still in high school already knowing exactly which courses to study and where they would attend college. Some of you may have not been as prepared but had a general idea of what might be next. Then there may have been a few in the group that had NO IDEA what they would do next and graduation scared the hell out of them, because they weren't prepared at all.

Now we come back to how this relates to death. If you look around at friends and family in your life, it will be clear to see which ones are preparing for what comes next and are doing what they can to get where they want to be; others may have an idea of what comes next but aren't as sure, and then there are the few that have NO IDEA what to expect after this life and may be scared to death of death itself.

Death is sad to the ones left behind but is no more than a VERY necessary step in the ultimate plan. Live right, live happy, and be on purpose to living beyond graduation. Thanks for reading.

Aaron