Endings…Beginnings!

The world had a lot to mourn in 2020 alone, following the pandemic, the effects and reactions of/to racism with about two and half million people dying to the pandemic alone. Deaths in 2020 were majorly attributed to diseases (COVID-19 didn’t even make it to the top 10!) globally. In lower-middle-income countries, diseases still claimed the most lives but gave a different category (road injury) a peak in at number 10.

No, this blog is not about death, nor its causes. The fact is that many lives were lost last year, many of them suddenly, I lost some people myself. There were no guarantees that someone you had seen the previous week would make it the following week. For Ugandans, the campaign season did not help at all; live bullets fired at civilians, cars ramming into bystanders, kidnappings and missing persons reported from time to time. We were always praying for lives to be spared, missing persons to be found, and peace to reign.

On the brighter side, I have been reading: Jacob, the one who later became Israel, is on his death bed, a man who survived a seven-year famine in his old age – Jacob is nearing his last days. Lying on his death bed, takes the time to bless each of his sons (the twelve tribes of Israel – the nation), blessing each son according to his own blessing. After the blessing, he gives instructions concerning his burial, desiring to be buried among his forefathers. Having fulfilled this “death ritual”, he draws his feet and breathes his last (Genesis 49).

Jacob’s life was not taken from him, neither did he lose it. His ending came gloriously, without haste. He had the time to put his house in order…he probably would have ordered a burger if they had existed at the time! But I have come to learnt that the only thing that matters towards the end of a life is the lives changed along the way, or a purpose fulfilled. No wonder Jacob was surrounded by family!

Just like Jacob’s, life does not have to end suddenly, in aloneness, nor nakedness. It can be glorious, blessings can be given, comfort given, lives can be well-lived and celebrated even at its end.

I am the Alpha and the Omega — the Beginning and END — the First and the LAST. – Revelations 22:13