Ide Ward was going on 120 years of age when he died early in 1982; a doctor said he died "just of old age," but George Will of the Washington Post called his long life a "triumph of the spirit."  Will says, "Aging, like a lot of other common things (life, love, memory, the existence of the universe, the infield fly rule), remains a mystery. But many gerontologists believe that, absent disease or imprudent living, an individual ages according to his or her genetically controlled ‘clock.' A scientist says that, ideally, we should live fairly healthily and then go ‘poof' rather than go into slow decline or a nursing home." Will says that "longevity is a triumph of the spirit" and not just of physiology; Ward "was picking up steam - and stumps and things - when he was past 70, heading for two score and nine more." And writes Will, "Such longevity can be, in a way, terrible, because it almost invariably involves the burial of many friends, relatives, children (Ward lost three sons during the First World War) and grandchildren. But such longevity can offer perspective on those who experience it, and those who think about it."

There is no way of knowing how long the young man lived after Jesus raised him from the dead, but he must have looked at life and death from a different point of view than before. Perhaps he lived long enough to bury his mother, but both of them would have faced her death differently than before Christ came along. And God has placed us alongside them through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, "the first-fruits of those who have died." We say, "God has visited his people" in Jesus; he has "raised a saviour" among us - and through him death has been defeated forever. God is still in heaven and all really is well in the world.