10/11/2021
We go through hard times in our lives, and then become all too familiar with death, but for Christians there are two things that miraculously occur in death, the first is that we, or our loved ones who have passed away, are assured of rising up again in Christ, and the second is that our memories of life with them, or our friend’s and family’s remembrances of their life with us, become rich and wonderful as most of the hardships we encountered together in life are either cast off as insignificant, or become treasured moments for us. This is unfathomable or misunderstood in the world, but not to the believer. While the unbeliever finds no peace in death, and little comfort in their memories, we are comforted by God, and the moments of triumphant joy in our faith in Christ lifts us up.
“as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed;”
2 Corinthians 6:9 ESV
Death is but a threshold we step across, a momentary passing between two lives. For those of us who have received the promise of eternity from God, and who have found faith in our resurrection, then death has lost its sting. We will stand before our Father with Jesus and taste the first sweet promise of eternity, while the tears and suffering of our earthly life and death will fall away. We hurt but for an instant in this life, and then comes our promised peace, rest, and joy. Isn’t this a wonderful reward for loving God, and walking with Jesus in faith, and righteousness?
“We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
Romans 6:4 ESV
In the last year of his life I made a garden with my father in law. He was a master gardener and had a large vegetable and flower garden at the back of his yard. Every year he waited for the perennials to show themselves in the spring, and planted the seeds of the annuals and vegetables in anticipation of their beauty, and the harvest of their bounty.
In season the garden’s colors were amazing, its fruit plentiful, and until the killing frosts of early winter, it provided food for his family and friends. But like his garden he had seasons too, and in his final years he was unable to tend the soil, and his garden faded. Its colors were not quite as splendid, nor its produce as plentiful, so I resolved myself to help him through this time in his life, and to restore the garden while he taught and encouraged me in it. Together we did restored his garden, and together we found the Lord present within it. The garden bore fruit like it had in past years, and its colors were as brilliant as ever… but just before we were to harvest the first of its bounty he went on to be with the Lord.
The evening after his passing, as the family gathered to mourn and remember him, I went to the garden and harvested the first beans from it, and brought them to the kitchen where the women of the family cooked them for our dinner. Then I stood in the garden looking at the flowers, and the immature ears of corn, green tomatoes, and tiny melons on their vines, and gave thanks for this man God had placed in my life. The memory of his frailty, and frequent falling, faded away. I only thought of the day that I carried him in my arms, shaved his face, and heard the warmth in his voice as he said to me… “We have had a wonderful life haven’t we?” Now he is with the Lord, and I am left marveling at the promised peace, and rest of God… and this beautiful garden.
That spring and early summer of that year were a blessing and a gift to the both of us, and so is the life and death of every one of us who believes in God, and the resurrection of Jesus. Like our Lord chooses not to remember our sin when we ask Him for His forgiveness, He allows us to forget the pain and suffering of this life. Jesus said it best in these few words…
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.””
John 16:33 ESV
Death… has it lost its sting for us as it should?
Prayer:
Father, thank you for our lives of joy and sorrow, happiness and suffering, remembrance and forgetfulness, and for your forgiveness of our sins though the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. Thank you too Father for our very first breath, and the last one we take before stepping across the narrow threshold into Heaven. Help us to believe, and to have faith in you, your Son Jesus Christ, and to trust in your promises of peace, and joy in eternity. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who comforts us and dries our every tear. Praised be your name for the lives we spend with those we love, and for your comforting embrace as we part from them. Merciful are you who wipes away the sadness with our mourning, and leaves us with only the sweet remembrances of our loved ones… no fights, no harsh words, only the good times remain. So be it that as we approach the limits of this life, and we ask that you wash us clean in the blood of your Son Jesus, that you will transform us in preparation for our judgement before you. Take the twisted roads, and straighten them, our burdens and make them light, and the memories of our sin, and remove them from us as far as the east is from the west. Make us righteous, and worthy of being in your presence forevermore. Call us your children, and seat us forever before you… no mention of death, only life everlasting.
“I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Corinthians 15:50-57 ESV
Rich Forbes