He whose head is in heaven need not fear to put his feet into the grave.

The picture is of a person whose deepest hopes are already set on heaven, so that the grave looks less like an ending than a step on a road they have long been walking. Courage about death, on this view, does not come from gritting the teeth. It comes from where a person’s heart has been resting all along.

Nobody is at fault for fearing death, and the line does not scold that fear so much as offer a place to set it down. If it speaks to you, notice what your own hopes are fixed on in an ordinary week. Staying close to what you trust most, day by day, is how that kind of steadiness usually grows.