Today I will preside over a funeral for an old friend, who died before anyone expected her to. I had the privilege to see her husband come to Christ many years ago, and to participate their both being nurtured in their early days together in Christ. They moved away about twenty years ago and I haven’t had much contact them since then, but because of our bond in Christ, I’ve always held them in my heart as family. When I got the call from her son that she had died suddenly, I was stunned. I was filled with all the emotions I feel every time someone who is a part of my heart dies. The thing about us humans is that we are not wired to deal with the loss of others. The separation, and loss we feel is strange and confusing. Deep down it just doesn’t make sense. We have those helpless thoughts of why couldn’t this have been avoidable. Nothing about it seems, or feels right. We were, as humans originally created to live forever, and death, and the separation death brings, wasn’t part of the deal. Death occurred as a result of the fall. Yet in light of all of that, Jesus said, in light of His resurrection, “O Death, where is your victory? O Death, where is your sting.?”
As Christians, His victory over death is our victory over death because we are in Him, thus His history is our history, therefore His future is our future. For a Christian Jesus has transformed death into being all about LIFE. 2 Corinthians 5, says in our death, we are actually swallowed up by life. Our fallen and dying bodies finally give birth to our eternal souls, and we will be given a brand new glorious body that is able to comprehend, and experience fully His great splendor, and beauty. Imagine what it must be like to be able to finally gaze, not just glance, into those all consuming eyes of fire that are windows into His great burning heart. To be lost in His beauty and love, is surely to be swallowed up by Life. So, as I bury my friend today, and minister to her grieving husband and family, I’ll quietly be thinking about Life, and I’ll be thinking about Sarah who loved the Arts, and saying in my heart. “O Sarah, what kind of great story, and drama you have fallen into. How I envy what you are seeing, hearing, experiencing. All of your senses are being swallowed up, by the greatest life and love of all. Those here think somehow it’s the tragic end to your story, but I know that all the dress rehearsals have ended, and the Great Play has just begun for you. See ya dear friend.”
