It was then that I realized out of the Pasadena High School (TX) 1965 graduating class of 488 students 74 had already died. As I perused that Facebook thread I had a wave of sadness flow over me as a realized we were losing friends who were a part of our formative years at an ever increasing rate.
I realized that we are all mortal and we have all entered the final leg of our journey here on earth and have an appointment with death. I really am not trying to be morbid. The Bible says, “It is appointed unto man once to die.” (Hebrews 9:27). I am trying to look reality in the face for a few minutes.
So, as I enter the final miles of my journey here on Earth I have given some thought to "What Next?" I mean what about death and dying as a Christian. I know that Jesus said, “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” Yet here I sit in the face of so powerful a statement of eternal life thinking about death.
It is clear from Jesus' words that for the Christian, life goes on eternally. We know that when we lose someone we love who also loved and followed after Christ, we will see them once again. Yet still there is the pain of separation. I have been married to the same woman for more than 53 years at this writing. I assure you we have literally become one flesh in every sense of the meaning of that phrase. I have spent a lifetime being a “we” and I am not sure how I will discover the “me” in our we.
By the way, the words of Jesus above are the reason you never hear me speaking of Loved ones who have entered eternity as being lost or dead. They are not lost because I know where they are and they are not dead they are just living out of sight until I join them. I like the term "passed" when speaking of what the uninitiated call death. They haven't died they have passed from the realm of the temporary to the land of the eternal. Just another digression to which my readers have become accustomed.
When I think of “death” I see only the death of the body in which I life. “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return" (Gen. 3:19). So if the body dies and returns to the Earth from which it came what is Jesus speaking of when he says we have ‘everlasting life” that shall never die.
Do you remember in Genesis where the Scripture says, “And God breathed into his nostrils and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). Death takes place when our person leaves it. The body receives it animation from the living spirit within us which is the breathe of God. So, what are we . . . we are a living soul and as long as we are functional in this world we live within a physical body.
So if when I die my body returns to the Earth from which it came what happens to me. Paul speaking for the believer in Christ says that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord and Jesus told the believing thief who died along side him that was a place called Paradise.
I take great comfort in that.
However, for those of us who have found in our spouses our soul mates and truly become one flesh “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). As mentioned earlier my wife and I have spent 53 plus years becoming a “we” . . . . one flesh. For people like us (Susan and myself) we find it difficult our selves from each other. We truly have become one. Someone said parting is so hard that they sometimes wished they had never loved.
Alfred Lord Tennyson was insightful when he said “It is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.” But that is precisely why our losses wound us. However, I would suggest to you that we are better off having had the opportunity to love than we are had we never loved. Not loving may leave us unscathed but we would never have known the intimacy of loving and being loved.
I have to confess that though we have had our share of struggles and challenges along the way but as we faced them together our live for each other became deeper and stronger. God has given us a good life. In my heart and mind I literally hurt at the thought of death and the separation from those we love it brings even if it is only temporary. You see, for me, even with the struggle, life together has been heaven enough and I would be content to go on forever just as it is now.
But that is not to be . . . . or is it?
Because of this I have to remind myself that as Christian neither of us are a citizen of this world trying to get to heaven; we are citizens of heaven making your way through this world.
This world is not my home I'm just a passing through
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore
Oh lord you know I have no friend like you
If heaven's not my home then lord what will I do
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore
I have a loving mother just over in gloryland
And I don't expect to stop until I shake her hand
She's waiting now for me in heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore
Oh lord you know I have no friend like you
If heaven's not my home Then lord what will I do
The angels beckon me From heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home In this world anymore
As hard as it is to understand death is particularly “bearable” for the Christian. We know that death can only bring a temporary separation. For now, we are left behind. But one day, Christ will come, and we will be forever reunited with our people.
That’s why we don’t “grieve as those who have no hope.” In other words, Christians do not grieve like those who are not Christians. Because we serve a living God, we have hope. Because Jesus died, was buried, and rose again on the third day, we have hope . . . . . confidence that what God has said will come to pass.
Does time heal all wounds? No, but Christ does. I’m grateful today that though I will one day say farewell to or others will say it to me that farewell is really just, “Farewell for now.” Add to that the fact there is a sense in which we will still be walking hand in hand together even though one has left. Paul once said, “behold I show you a mystery.” Well I want to share with you a mystery. As we walk with Jesus here on Earth and the other with Him on streets of gold we are both walking with Jesus and in him with each other. It is that mystery that I know they are not dead they are just not here.
Will we hurt and grieve. You betcha we will! Those who love deepest hurt the most. But we do not grieve as those who have no hope. Because He lives we shall also live. Time does not heal the broken heart but Jesus does bind up the wounds.
I have been asked at virtually every memorial service I have conducted questions like: Will we recognize each other in heaven? Will we have a body and if so what will it be like? What age will we be in heaven? I do have opinions about these and perhaps one day, if there is interest I'll share them.
Suffice it to say that when death opens the door to eternity and we step through we will be changed in a moment as in the twinkle of an eye and we will find ourselves in His presence and realize that we appear as He does. Clearly we will know each other but the relationship will be different and it will be eternal and it will be deeper and more significant than anything we shared here. Anything else might well be just speculation. . . . . . Oh, keep in mind they are not lost when we know where they are.
Just a few thoughts about things to come. Things we will all experience if Jesus delays his coming. It that case I'll meet you in the air.
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