Shells and Souls


This past Sunday as Dad passed from this life to the next - I had the rare opportunity to watch as his soul left his body.

No - I didn't actually see a spirit rising up like you might see in the movies.  However, what I did witness was that one minute Dad was with us - I was holding his hand and had just finished reading a poem to him, and the next minute, what remained on the bed was not my father at all.  It was just a shell, and the "essence" of Dad had gone.

Now I am certain that those who do not have any faith in God, Jesus, or Heaven might say, "Well, Susan - what you saw is just a factor of his heart stopping."  But I believe with all my heart that they'd be wrong.

The Bible tells us that God's spirit lives within us - and that the fruits of that spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  

Certainly, those qualities are ones that lived in Dad. So maybe THAT'S what the soul is - things that make a body more than just a shell...the ESSENCE of a person that elevates the body from a container for blood and bone, lymph and electrical impulses - into the person we know.

And if Dad's essence is no longer in his body - where did it go?  Did it just evaporate? I do not think so...  

I think the things that made Dad, Dad - the wonderful parts of him that transformed his body into the kind, loving, wonderful Dad I knew - THOSE things are now in heaven.  Those things are what I'll see again when I get there.  Those things are residing in a new body - one that will never get sick, will never grow old, will never die.

The Bible tells us this is the case - 

"...our citizenship is in heaven.  And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." - Philippians 3:20-21

"Behold!  I tell you a mystery.  We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed." - 1 Corinthians 15:51-52

"He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, no pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." - Revelation 21:4

It also tells us we need Jesus - 

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." - John 3:16

For those who do not yet believe, I pray they get the chance to witness the moment of transformation between life and death.  It is an incredible thing to see - and once you do - the promise of Jesus and the hope of heaven becomes very real.

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