MY friend death (revisited)

I have written before about viewing death as the friend that he is to me. Since then I have been struggling a bit with "visiting" him in the ultimate sense. I know that I am called to put to death the deeds of the flesh and to die to myself. These things seem like correspondence (whether by email or even IM) with my friend rather than the flow-blown visit that I will have with him when God tells me that my time here is up. But the obvious question (at least to me) is this: If he is such a good friend, what is holding me back from that visit? Why not knock on his door and embrace him the way friends embrace: fully and completely?

In thinking about this a bit more I got to thinking about an imaginary friend (erm, not that kind) in a far-off country like, say, India. No matter how good this friend is to me visiting him in India would require resource expenditures and commitments from me that would be irresponsible at this point in my life. There would be a time to visit him, but now would not be the right time.

I think about my friend, death, in much the same way. To force my way to him (like my far-off friend in India) would be foolish. The resource commitment that would require and the wake of my departure to him would be very difficult on the people that I love more than anyone else on the planet. Now, if my friend would come knocking at my door would I let him in? I believe that I will know when he has been sent by Him and it is then that I will welcome him to this body of mine.

And we will feast together. My will we eat and drink until we are full!