I was so very sorry to hear about the death of Robin Williams.  Any death is sad but somehow this man made so many of us laugh and he gave us so much, so it is a tragedy to see that his own life was curtailed.

We can kid ourselves that this life is all there is when the truth is this is just a dress rehearsal about what is to come.  The choices we make here on planet Earth affect where we spend eternity and what we do there. We aren’t the judges of what happens thankfully but God has all the facts and he will do what is right at all times.

How do we educate our children about all this when all that they see, hear, smell, feel and taste is so tangible to them? The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom – so says the writer in the book of Proverbs in the Bible.  When children are taught and begin to realise that there is someone greater than their mum and dad and even greater than any ‘important’ person in the whole wide world, then they can begin to be in awe of the God who made everything.

To be told by any government that we can’t teach in our schools that God created the world is in my mind both shocking and inaccurate. Hence, the importance of us parents to teach Biblical truths to our young ones. Just as there are consequences in creation (in nature for example) so with us higher human creations there are consequences for not passing on truths that have been part of our British society for thousands of years.

We don’t talk about death very often and to our children even less. Sometimes when a pet or a relative has died an open window is provided for us adults to share about death with our children.  The little boy in America who actually witnessed a taste of heaven (see the internet for this link about the book and imminent film that is being made on this) and others who have had ‘death’ experiences shows the reality of what is to come.

I’m looking forward to the time that I can be with Jesus as I know he has promised his home to be my destiny. May each of us including our children gain a glimpse of what is to come so that the fear of death goes and the hope of what is to come envelops us in these turbulent times. Let’s look out for others, too, who may be gripped by fear in these days and take their hand and take them with us on the journey of life with Jesus Christ at the helm.