Being Ill:Time to be with God

My wife was telling me that whenever she got sick as a child that she was punished for it. I thought to myself how crazy that was to me. When I was young I was always honored for being sick as my people always saw being sick as a time one was with God. Because without God when one is sick one often dies. So, when my wife told me this I realized just how different every family is.

I have always seen that when one is ill they are spending time with God and either being reborn here on earth or that they are preparing to go to heaven. Either way, they are preparing for the next incarnation either here on earth in the same body or they are preparing for another incarnation as a spirit in a heaven realm. And either way it is fine "at least as far as what it all means to a soul and the souls relation to God goes". So, being ill whether it is for a day or a year or somewhere in between is always about God preparing someone for the next phase of their life as a soul. It is less about actually being ill and more about what one is being prepared for. In thinking about it in this way I believe it is less likely that one will die in any illness, and even if they do then they are spiritually better prepared for whatever comes.