My father in-law passed away March 6th, 2009. A few months later (October 2009) , while reflecting on this event I wrote the following:
Scripture puts in more succinctly with an added declaration:
All of this came back to me when my mother passed away April 25th, 2011. All the good things listed above we enjoy because what God created was good (Genesis 1:32). All the bad things are present in life because of man’s fall (Genesis chapter 3). When my father-in-law died I was talking to an unbeliever who was offering condolences. I said, “The reason it is so hard for us to accept death is because it is not natural to us.” He looked at me in disbelief and replied, “Yes it is.” I know what he meant. Death is part of the natural process, at least in our present situation. What I meant was that when God first created things death was not a part of that. Death followed sin into the world. We were never meant to say goodbye by way of death. Many people become angry at God when they lose someone. Their anger is misplaced. Be angry with sin! For without it there would be no death.
In our pastor’s Easter message he tried to relate this life to eternity by giving us the analogy that life was like the first day of the year. He asked us to imagine a day where everything that could go wrong did go wrong and in the worst possible way. But the next 364 days of the year were really good. Each day felt like it couldn’t get any better, but the next day was better somehow. At the end of the year how would you think about that year? If you remember the first day at all it would seem like a very small thing. That is what the Christian has to look forward to:
But it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
(1 Corinthians 2: 9)
As a Christian we can say:
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”
(I Corinthians 15:55)
Because:
“We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”
2 Corinthians 5: 8)
Frankly I am a bit jealous of my father-in-law and my mother. The struggle is over for them, now there is only the reward for eternity, they have overcome. When death takes a loved one we feel ‘left behind’. But when death comes to a believer, those believers left behind feel the loss, but carry the eternal hope that we are only a few steps behind them. For now though, we need to watch, occupy, and overcome.
“Life is paradoxical to the extreme;
It is long and short,
full and empty,
loving and hateful,
loving and hateful,
hopeful and dreadful,
bitter and sweet,
exciting and exhausting;
It makes or breaks,
Clarifies or stupefies,
satisfies or frustrates,
cheers or discourages,
glorifies or humiliates.
Life starts with faith and ends as fate.”
Life starts with faith and ends as fate.”
Scripture puts in more succinctly with an added declaration:
“…the Lord gave, and the Lord taketh away;
blessed be the name of the Lord”.
(Job 1:21b)
All of this came back to me when my mother passed away April 25th, 2011. All the good things listed above we enjoy because what God created was good (Genesis 1:32). All the bad things are present in life because of man’s fall (Genesis chapter 3). When my father-in-law died I was talking to an unbeliever who was offering condolences. I said, “The reason it is so hard for us to accept death is because it is not natural to us.” He looked at me in disbelief and replied, “Yes it is.” I know what he meant. Death is part of the natural process, at least in our present situation. What I meant was that when God first created things death was not a part of that. Death followed sin into the world. We were never meant to say goodbye by way of death. Many people become angry at God when they lose someone. Their anger is misplaced. Be angry with sin! For without it there would be no death.
In our pastor’s Easter message he tried to relate this life to eternity by giving us the analogy that life was like the first day of the year. He asked us to imagine a day where everything that could go wrong did go wrong and in the worst possible way. But the next 364 days of the year were really good. Each day felt like it couldn’t get any better, but the next day was better somehow. At the end of the year how would you think about that year? If you remember the first day at all it would seem like a very small thing. That is what the Christian has to look forward to:
But it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
(1 Corinthians 2: 9)
As a Christian we can say:
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”
(I Corinthians 15:55)
Because:
“We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”
2 Corinthians 5: 8)
Frankly I am a bit jealous of my father-in-law and my mother. The struggle is over for them, now there is only the reward for eternity, they have overcome. When death takes a loved one we feel ‘left behind’. But when death comes to a believer, those believers left behind feel the loss, but carry the eternal hope that we are only a few steps behind them. For now though, we need to watch, occupy, and overcome.
