I recently read an interview with a woman who had very narrowly escaped being killed in the September 11th terrorist attacks. Why did she think she made it out alive when so many others perished? "I guess God just wasn't finished with me yet." I wonder whether any of the 3,000 people who were killed that day would have said when they got up that morning that God was finished with them?

How do you know when God is finished with you?

Now I understand that it's human nature to try to impose some sort of logic on the apparent randomness of life. Why is one person pulled alive from the wreckage of a plane crash in which the other 29 passengers have died? How does that brick which detaches itself from a building facade decide which head on that busy sidewalk to fall on? We try to make some sort of human sense of something quite mysterious -- something which could be the will of God, I suppose, but could also be plain, blind, totally meaningless chance.

I do wonder what people really believe when they make statements like "God wasn't finished with me yet." Do they think they are more unfinished than others, or that God is allowing them additional time to complete their assignments, or are they spouting a comforting platitude without thinking about what they are really saying?

In the burial service in our Book of Common Prayer, we find this prayer for the departed: "Grant that, increasing in knowledge and love of thee, he may go from strength to strength in the life of perfect service in thy heavenly kingdom." I'm not sure whether this prayer has any basis in Scripture, but it does imply that when we die we continue to grow and develop.

Although I do expect to die some day, I don't think God will ever be finished with me. And I thank God for that!