In life we learn about ourselves as separate individuals, following separate paths. I believe that in death we will learn the paradoxical, complementary truth which in life we only glimpse: that we are all one.

Years ago I wrote that “life swirls around and through me, rich and full of meaning. I am – you are – we are all – in the palm of God’s hand.”

I also wrote, and still find confirmed in my worship, that we are all one, not only created by God, but having our whole existence in God. I am part of you, and you of me. We are part of every rock, every plant, every swimming and crawling and flying thing. When a seed sprouts or a bird falls in the forest, that is us. And that is God.

When my neighbor dies, I die with him; when my neighbor has a baby, I am born. That of God in me recognizes and is joined with that of God in you. And in all of God….

The author of the book of Acts writes, “In God we live and move, in God we exist” (Acts 17:28). In God, too, we die.

–Warren Ostrom in “What I Believe about Death” from Pendle Hill Pamphlet 385: In God We Die