Melissa
Man Created in God’s Image
Sun Oct 26 16:33:30 2003
24.165.236.2

Man Created in God’s Image

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Genesis 1:27


Man Created in God’s Image
Herman van der Kolk

I would like to tell you a short story about my wife’s illness and her dying, because this has taught me so much about the bond made by the Lord with each person as from the beginning and lasting into eternity.



My wife died at the age of 85 years after spen­ding a period of four and a half years in a geriatric clinic for patients with dementia. I visited her there almost daily so I could fol­low the process of her gradual decline very closely until her death.



It became clear to me that a person in such a condition is and remains a living person with an inner life, even a struggling life where the struggle is even more difficult because the patient cannot communicate in the sense that others can understand what is going on in his mind. A struggle in himself of being in a state of not understanding what is going on with him, who he is, where he is, why others don’t understand him, although perhaps of­ten, perhaps occasionally. He does utter to himself sounds probably clear to himself, but not to others. It might even well be that the patient is ‘aware’ of the fact that his illness is a mortal process and that the end of life is approaching.



I say ‘aware’ in a fundamental way, possi­bly beyond rational understanding. It is a most confused inner situation, where we, as loving fellow humans, have no access; possi­bly not even an awareness that this inner life does exist under the cover of seemingly mea­ningless walking around or staring idly into space.



In the case of my wife, it was different. She ‘spoke’ much to me. She apparently felt that her own husband had come to be at her dis­posal, but she uttered only non understand­able sounds. Frequently there were questions, recognizable by the intonation, but I could not reply to them. I therefore often made ge­nerally reassuring remarks, such as “Yes, I have thought about it already, but it is a good thing to remind me”. Sometimes I felt that this had a reassuring affect, but not always. It might occur that she got really angry at me because my reply didn’t make any sense to her at all. This, however, proved to me that questions went around in her head with which she had to struggle. She was deeply disappointed by her own husband, for appa­rently even he had dropped her!



Often I prayed with her and read the Bible to her. Many times I saw that she nodded when I did so and this nodding clearly had a mea­ning. She nodded her inner approval at cert­ain texts. It was a proof to me how important it was to continue praying and reading from the Bible and also to sing with her, prefera­bly well known songs such as psalms and other religious songs.



This nodding of her’s continued until her dying hour. I was sitting at her bedside with the nurse on the opposite side, observing how gradually her breathing diminished. There was no pain, no tightness of the chest and after some time I said to the nurse, “It takes a long time before the soul can leave the body, doesn’t it?” Then something par­ticular occurred from which it was clear to me that she had left this world in peace.



Because I wished this experience to be con­firmed, I went back to the nurse after the fu­neral and asked her to tell me what had hap­pened. She said, “You stood up and you laid your hand upon your wife’s forehead. She lifted her head somewhat from the pil­low in your direction when you said to her, ‘My beloved wife, go. You may go to our heavenly Father. Our Lord Jesus prepared all for you, just go to Him.’ Then she nodded, laid her head back on the pillow and died within a few minutes.”



I tell this story to you because I feel it to be a real confirmation of the fact that we all re­main human beings, how much our bodies or minds may deteriorate. There is one thing that remains: our attachment with eternal life, the lifeline that connects us with our Creator according to His Word. We are re­created in His image. I feel that we should look to everybody, no matter how crippled he may be -- mentally or physically, or how much suffering he may be in, as people desti­ned for eternal life, a life created by the Lord and over which He is the Master. And God has His plans, including the time and way of ending life here on earth.


This is my most fundamental reason for re­jecting suicide, euthanasia and abortus pro­vocatus. Here we decide when the earthly part of our (or other’s) eternal lives should end. But such decisions lie completely bey­ond our human ability to judge. We cannot judge what consequences are connected the­reto; not for ourselves, nor for the circle to which we belong. Neither is anyone else able or authorized to make such decisions in our place. Our life is basically God’s life in us!


H. van der Kolk, JD


The Continuing Threat of Euthanasia

International Conference 1997

Schreeuw om Leven – Ruitersweg 35-37, 1211 KT Hilversum, The Netherlands

phone +31 35 624-4352, fax +31 35 624-9141,
e-mail schreeuw@solcon.nl ,
internet www.schreeuwomleven.nl

http://www.schreeuwomleven.nl/Euthanasia/Index.htm