Like me, you’re the one who looks up first when anyone enters the room, quickly scanning their employee ID for signs of their significance to the situation before they have even had an opportunity to introduce themselves.
If we’re similarly coded, the group chat that covers the generations from Great Aunt Petal to cousin Tré is relying on you for accurate updates.
If you’re built anything like I am, then you’re too busy to cry right now even as I confirm that your loved one has passed, because you’re too focused on trying to understand it all.
If we are being perfectly honest, regardless of our position in the family, most of us don’t really understand death. Death is difficult to explain, challenging to define, and when we speak about death, we are often left with more questions than answers. Yet when we read God’s Word it provides clarity about death and dying, especially as it relates to the death of a believer, versus that of an unbeliever.
The believer’s death is but a temporary sleep devoid of awareness, until the first resurrection at Christ’s return when our immortality is conveyed. The unbeliever’s death brings an end to all their plans and thinking until the thousand years are complete and their eternal doom is realized. Were it not for sin, there would be no death. And because of Christ’s victory on our behalf, death will one day die. (Ecclesiastes 6:5; 9:5,10; 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18).
May the hope of life again that’s found in Christ Jesus help you cope with any experience of death you may face.
Until that sweet Reunion, Maranatha!