My kids got an up close taste of death yesterday.
It’s not like they didn’t know it existed before this. We’d seen the lifeless body of a woman floating face down in the river in Nepal once. We’d watched bodies on biers move past us on their way to funeral pyres in India. We’d passed dog carcasses wearing blankets of flies, the smell of them slapping us in the face as we walked to a friend’s flat.
And in the US we’ve been to funerals, stared into open caskets at faces that don’t look asleep.
We’ve had to peel our beloved dog off the road and bury her before her time.
But yesterday was different. It was a shock and, though it’s something that happens every day in the world, it reminds us that we aren’t home yet.
Praying With One Eye Open 