I have thought a lot about death in the last few weeks with the passing of my sister. I have contemplated the promises we as Christians stand upon, the truths that light our way through the often treacherous waters of this life. Life itself with all its many joys and laughter and also with its many heavy burdens is an exceedingly rich complicated tapestry. It is tightly spun on the looms of the ages. Certainly we are here today and we are gone tomorrow. The Scriptures tell us that our life, in the span of time and space, is like a vapor.

This world is definitely for the living and once someone passes they move on into a different realm in our minds. I wrote a poem about memories one time. I was not to kind to them, for they are at best, a second best ethereal realm. The period of mourning seems to be the transition from something that the soul can touch and see and hear to something that is all at once gone and the senses realize it can never interact with again.

And so its a relegation. Relegated into a wispy ever decreasing world. I think this is where my faith in a very real after world brings me great hope. It transforms what I just spoke about into something much more glorious than a slowly dying memory. The notion that she is more truly alive now than she ever was, is for me, truly astounding and she dwells in a place where there are no more tears and pain. And so that begins to work on my sadness and rather than something that is slowly dying in the recesses of my mind, something is born. This place is the wellspring of hope that does not slowly fade but becomes stronger the more we ourselves approach our own deaths.

What would we do without Jesus? He never leaves us and surrounds us with comfort and love and kindness. Out of death comes life and that life is the breath of the Spirit. I am more convinced than ever, with the passing of my sister, the shortness of this life and the importance of loving God and loving others and being unashamed of the One who is our very life even in the midst of death.

Jesus asks Martha pointedly in John 11 ” Do you believe this?.” Believe what? “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” It is a question that strikes at the heart of mankind. Jesus then says to Martha’s sister Mary “”Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?”

In the midst of my sister’s death I have seen something of the glory of God and in the seeing of it, it has raised me up in Spirit and newness of life. It makes me desire all the more to reach out my hand and take a hold of His glory and His glory is Jesus. And in the glory of God there beats the heart and wellspring of all life and it restores me and strengthens me. It sustains me in the deepest parts of who I am and it gives me the hope to know that one day I will reach out my hand as I pass from this world to the next. I will reach out and take a hold of glory and that glory will fully grasp me and take me to its realm. And there my eyes will see and know as I am known and I will rest in the glory of God.