My classmate has passed away

The photo of a woman who passed away on 10 Jun 2009 caught my attention while I was reading the obituary section this morning. There were multiple obituaries of the same person.

As I read further I realized that the person who has passed away is a 47 year old doctor. I suddenly realized that she was my classmate who is married to another of my classmate who is now a prominent doctor in Singapore.

Oh dear, what happened to my classmate? I remembered her as someone who is very cheerful and bubbly. Why did she pass away so suddenly? She is only 47 years old.

I decided to text my other classmates and found out later that she has been struggling with cancer of the breast for a while.

This is the second death among my classmates. I recalled another male classmate who was a very promising doctor training to become a hand surgeon a few years after we graduated. He was the top cadet in the officer cadet course and has just got married to a young doctor who is now a Pediatrician. He too died of cancer.

Life is indeed very short and very fragile. What is life? Do we just exist here on earth for around  40-70 years and then vanish away? Is that all there is to life?

If there is nothing after death, then I guess I should really go all out and earn as much money as I could and live life to the fullest and be merry for tomorrow I die.

Is life like a monopoly game? We plan and compete to see how many properties or assets we could own. We build one house after another. We bid for the best real estate space and trade our houses to build a big hotel.

All of a sudden an urgent phone call came and our monopoly game was interrupted. How we wish we can carry on the game and gather more and more properties and assets?

Life is like a game of monopoly. When the game is over we have to face the reality.

So what do we face after we pass away? Is there reality after death?

I read the bible and it says

Whereas ye know not what [shall be] on the morrow. For what [is] your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. – James 4:14

Do I have a tomorrow?

For that ye [ought] to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. – James 5:14

I will have a tomorrow on this earth if the Lord who watches over my life let me have a ‘tomorrow”.

Will I live forever after I die?

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. –John 3:16