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How do you estimate the value of a human being? Many of us never stop to ponder the value of a human life -- not because we discount the value of a human being, but simply because we assume that the human beings we care about will always be there. We assume health in our children, our parents and our friends.

Now introduce death. Death always comes suddenly. Even after a long, lingering illness, few people, no matter how old, are ready to die. No child wants to be an orphan. Even children who have grown up appreciate having mom and dad to call.

Some – too many – have had to endure the loss of a child. The unspeakable grief that ensues is never really overcome. The grief simply grows quiet with time. The grief softens, but it never goes away. It is always there.

As much as every parent values their children, a parent who has lost a child has in the absence of their baby a reminder of the value of human life, a painful appreciation of the eternal value in their children who continue to enjoy the gift of life.

Death serves a dark purpose in the human experience. Death provides gloomy background against which we recognize the value of Life.

In a nation of such abundance like ours, we avoid thinking about death. We have successfully removed the reality of death to the sidelines. Many of us only encounter death in the fantasy realm of TV and Movies. Death in media lacks the heaviness of loss we experience when the death we encounter is the death of someone we love.

Because we have hidden death, we sometimes lose sight of the value of each person who is blessed with life. Living in a country of such great abundance, our complaints have more to do with the loss of convenience, than with the loss of life.

“The car is broken down and won’t be repaired until the day after tomorrow.”

“The air conditioner is on the fritz.”

“I wish it would rain. The lawn needs the water.”

We value convenience because we assume life will always be there.

Today’s Old Testament lesson comes out of a context of famine and death. It relates the grief of a widow, who not only has lost a husband, but now loses her only son. It relates the grief of a house guest who shares the grief of a forlorn mother.

The pathos and struggle of today’s Old Testament lesson lifts up the reality of death as a means to highlight the value of life.

In a age where death was close, the story would awaken in people who lived with death, the heaviness of loss. In our age, where death is hidden, the story awakens little emotion and less concern. We simply “turn the channel.”