When we think about death (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

  Why are we so afraid when we think about death? … Death is only dreadful for those who live in dread and fear of it.  Death is not wild and terrible, if only we can be still and hold fast to God’s Word.  Death is not bitter, if we have not become bitter ourselves.  Death is grace, the greatest gift of grace that God gives to people who believe in him.  Death is mild, death is sweet and gentle; it beckons to us with heavenly power, if only we realize that it is the gateway to our homeland, the tabernacle of joy, the everlasting kingdom of peace.

  How do we know that dying is so dreadful?  Who knows whether, in our human fear and anguish, we are only shivering and shuddering at the most glorious, heavenly, blessed event in the world?  Death is hell and night and cold, if it is not transformed by our faith.  But that is just what is so marvelous, that we can transform death. 

--Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

Note:  Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian and author of The Cost of Discipleship.  He was arrested in 1943 for his very vocal opposition to Adolf Hitler's program of systematic genocide, and was executed on April 9, 1945, just 21 days before Hitler committed suicide.  His Letters and Papers from Prison were published posthumously.

Image source:  Fra Angelico, The Harrowing of Hell (1441-1442), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrowing_of_Hell#/media/File:Fra_Angelico_024.jpg

Quotation source