2 Corinthians 5:1 (NIV®)
“For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.”
It is hard to watch someone waste away before your eyes. You know what is happening but there is nothing you can do about it. It is that part of life that is the hardest… losing those you love. I’ve seen it happen to friends and family. I’m sure you have too. It is the undeniable fact that these bodies are mortal. There is no escape from it. It is what it is.
I wonder how those handle it who don’t know God. How do you watch someone face death head on and not be overwhelmed by the finality of it all… by the extreme loss. How do you face death without God?
If you don’t know God, maybe this is a good time to start thinking about it. I mean, the only way to bypass death is the rapture – and if you don’t know God you have zero chance of that happening to you. So it might be a good time to stop in the middle of the busy-ness of life and take inventory.
If you know God, then we have this hope that this is not the end and there is more. The Holy Spirit is confirmation that all of this is true. There is life after this place. We have a future home and body that won’t decay. We will be changed and live forever in God’s kingdom. We have this hope and it is not a hope so… it is a hope in… our confident hope in Christ.
It is that hope that does not die. Our passing from this world is simply the culmination and realization of the hope that we have had for so long… that we will be with God. No more separation. No more sin. No more frail bodies and minds. A move from our mortality into who and what we are meant to be. There is something beyond the here and now. We have a place prepared specifically for us. There is no separation there. This is our comfort during hard days like these… this is our undying hope.