Honesty is definitely the best policy when explaining death to a child or else they may develop fears and misconceptions.
However, you need not delve deep in the topic as the child may not understand all your points. Moreover, it can scare young children.
Thus, the trick is to explain as much as the child can handle. This often depends on the child’s age, personality, life experiences, etc. In addition, it is recommended to encourage an atmosphere of comfort and openness.
Those who yearn to understand death spiritually to make the most of life can read several famous quotes, proverbs, sayings, and scriptural verses for inspiration.
These quotations stimulate one to think deeply into the reality of one’s existence and accept death as an inevitable reality of life.
“It is not the end of the physical body that should worry us. Rather, our concern must be to live while we’re alive – to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are.”
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
According to the Holy Bible, spiritual death refers to the soul’s separation from God. Thus, unlike physical death, which is a separation of body and soul, spiritual death refers to separation of man and God.
It happens due to sins and our own disobedience to His gospel. For instance, when Adam sinned against God by eating the forbidden fruit, he died spiritually but continued to live physically fro numerous years.
Thus, it is believed that we are all born spiritually dead, or in other words, spiritually separated from God.
Generally, death is defined as the separation of the immortal soul from the mortal body. Moreover, Christians believe that after death, the souls goes to heaven or hell, depending upon their belief or non-belief in God.
In Heaven, individuals enjoy in the presence of God and in Hell, they suffer eternally for their sins. In addition, Catholic Christians believe in purgatory, i.e., a place for temporary punishment for purification to be made ready for Heaven.
“Life is eternal, and love is immortal,
and death is only a horizon;
and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.”
-Rossiter Worthington Raymond
Coping with the loss of a family member is painful and debilitating. However, when experiencing grief, you need not suppress or repress your emotion, taking them as a sign of weakness.
On the contrary, these emotions show the strength of your relationships. Moreover, tears can actually help in the process of healing to recover from the loss in a healthy way.
So, you need to be patient with yourself and let yourself feel the grief. Besides, you may also join a support group.
The following are some signs and symptoms associated with death that can be observed a few months, weeks, or days before dying, showing that the body is preparing to shut down.
Withdrawal and Visions: As death approaches, the individual tends to become socially withdrawn and unresponsive while preparing to detach from the body and bodily relationships.
Nevertheless, the sense of hearing is usually the last to go. Thus, you can comfort your loved one by speaking softly, in a gentle tone and helping him or her let go.
It is believed that the afterlife experienced during a near-death experience or NDE is similar to our dreams. In most cases of near-death experiences, individuals had been clinically dead yet they experienced life-changing events while being out of their body.
As the name itself indicates, an NDE is a psychological event that tends to occur when someone is on the threshold of death. These accounts are filled with the description of out-of-body experiences and traveling through NDE circles.
“The caterpillar dies so the butterfly could be born. And, yet, the caterpillar lives in the butterfly and they are but one. So, when I die, it will be that I have been transformed from the caterpillar of earth to the butterfly of the universe.”
- John Harricharan
Butterflies symbolize death or rebirth after death. In fact, some believe that these beautiful creatures represent the souls of those who have recently departed from this mortal world.
Furthermore, in early America, there was a widespread belief that a white butterfly foretells of death.
Verses about death quoted from the Holy Bible can help a great deal in understanding about life and death. They encourage and guide us to the right path. Moreover, these verses can prove useful in deriving strength and spirituality for coping with the loss of a loved one.
If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
Romans 14:8
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Matthew 5:4
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
1 Corinthians 15:42-44
There are various views about afterlife put forth by believers and shunned by skeptics. Moreover, scientists have been investigating about the possibility of life after death, taking hints from the near-death experiences of certain patients.
Taking the philosophical point of view into consideration, there definitely should be life after death otherwise the course of life is meaningless.
If death is the ultimate truth, then there is no point working hard to achieve temporary rewards and then perish permanently.