Is it just me, or has death been getting a particular run in the papers of late? It has struck me as I flick through the headlines how random and unforgiving death is. Consider the following headlines from the SMH:
Seven dead as lift plummets 34 floors
Elevator in eastern China drops 100 metres, killing seven construction workers.
Family watch deadly exorcism ritual
22-year-old mother of two drowns in her lounge as up to 40 relatives watch.
Boy, 6, killed by mystery sea beast
Boy dies after being stung by an unidentified creature off the Tiwi Islands.
Man dies during cockatoo rescue
58-year-old falls 12 metres trying to retrieve neighbour’s pet bird from tree.
Christmas party’s deadly dim sim
A 25-year-old woman dies after a violent reaction to eating a dim sim.
We normally hear about disasters and things, but more and more we are hearing about these bizarre or unusual stories of people meeting their end.
It serves to reinforce both the fallenness of this world and the finality of death that can strike at any moment, to any one, at any time.
Praise be to our Father that Jesus has taken on death and beaten it, that though it remains a formidable enemy to those who know him, yet it is beaten and holds no final power.
In Anticipation 