Not really random at all

Today as I reflected on my last blog posting, I realized that most of the "random" topics in that post were actually written on the theme of our time to die. The idea in Doctrine and Covenants 42:48 that we'll be healed if we're not appointed unto death is where I get the idea of there being a time appointed for each of us to die. "And again, it shall come to pass that he that hath faith in me to be healed, and is not appointed unto death, shall be healed." The same idea is found in Alma 40:10 that God knows "all the times appointed unto man." And in Ecclesiastes 3:2 we read of a time to be born and a time to die.

From January 2005, to October 2008, I served in two Relief Society presidencies, back-to-back. In the first presidency, about six weeks after we were released, AA, the president with whom I had served, whom I loved and considered a dear friend, died of cancer. She was 58 years old. I was just released from the second Relief Society presidency in October and this week, SB, the secretary with whom I'd served in the second presidency, whom I loved and considered a dear friend, died of cancer. I do not think SB was even 60.

Both of them were women of faith and good works and, if life worked on the merit system (which it doesn't), they merited healing and long life AND they both had faith to be healed. I believe that if they had not been appointed unto death, their faith would have made them whole. They did not die because they lacked faith or good works. I have felt that the days of their passing must have been, for each of them, the time appointed for them to die, because to say otherwise, in the face of all the prayers and blessings offered for each of them, and in light of the verse in Doctrine and Covenants 42:48, would be saying that they lacked faith. They didn't lack faith.

On the other hand, we have Aunt R, who turned 101 in December and died this past week. She lived more than forty years longer than either AA or SB. Aunt R was a good woman, faithful and full of good works. Forty years is a lifetime to some people. The Lord knew the length of her days and she was not appointed unto death until she was 101.

Then we have my mother, who has been leaving us bit by bit for at least twelve but probably fifteen or more years. She's been a good woman, faithful and full of good works (including making great bread). She's still alive. God alone knows His purposes and the length of her days.

I didn't mention him in my post yesterday, but my father had dementia for twenty years before he died at a ripe old age.

To my mortal mind, none of this makes sense except to the extent I acknowledge the truth of God's statement in Isaiah 55:8-9: "[M]y thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, . . . for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

What is a proper lifespan? Elder Russell M. Nelson said: "The only length of life that seems to satisfy the longings of the human heart is life everlasting." Elder Russell M. Nelson, "Doors of Death," Ensign, May 1992, 72. That is probably the only equitable lifespan. Life everlasting. Something we all get for free through Christ's atonement and resurrection, including AA, SB, Aunt Ruth, Mom, Dad and the rest of us, but something we don't fully comprehend now.

When someone I care about passes away, I re-read President Kimball's "Tragedy or Destiny." Here is a quote I like:
"Could the Lord have prevented these tragedies? The answer is, Yes. The Lord is omnipotent, with all power to control our lives, save us pain, prevent all accidents, drive all planes and cars, feed us, protect us, save us from labor, effort, sickness, even from death, if he will. But he will not."

Another quote from that article:
"If we looked at mortality as the whole of existence, then pain, sorrow, failure, and short life would be calamity. But if we look upon life as an eternal thing stretching far into the premortal past and on into the eternal post-death future, then all happenings may be put in proper perspective.
"Is there not wisdom in his giving us trials that we might rise above them, responsibilities that we might achieve, work to harden our muscles, sorrows to try our souls? Are we not exposed to temptations to test our strength, sickness that we might learn patience, death that we might be immortalized and glorified?
"If all the sick for whom we pray were healed, if all the righteous were protected and the wicked destroyed, the whole program of the Father would be annulled and the basic principle of the gospel, free agency, would be ended. No man would have to live by faith.
If joy and peace and rewards were instantaneously given the doer of good, there could be no evil—all would do good but not because of the rightness of doing good. There would be no test of strength, no development of character, no growth of powers, no free agency, only satanic controls.
"Should all prayers be immediately answered according to our selfish desires and our limited understanding, then there would be little or no suffering, sorrow, disappointment, or even death, and if these were not, there would also be no joy, success, resurrection, nor eternal life and godhood.
* * *
"Being human, we would expel from our lives physical pain and mental anguish and assure ourselves of continual ease and comfort, but if we were to close the doors upon sorrow and distress, we might be excluding our greatest friends and benefactors. Suffering can make saints of people as they learn patience, long-suffering, and self-mastery. …"

And this final quote to sum up my musings, also from "Tragedy or Destiny:"
"I am positive in my mind that the Lord has planned our destiny. Sometime we’ll understand fully, and when we see back from the vantage point of the future, we shall be satisfied with many of the happenings of this life that are so difficult for us to comprehend. "

Amen to that. I'm counting on it.