Journey's End
Some lessons are harder to learn than others. Some are downright painful. As a Christian there are sayings that almost become automatic responses to other people's grief. It is easy to read that, "...life is but a vapor" or, " to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord", but it is different when you are the one experiencing the grief. These things just sound hollow when someone that just said goodbye to the person that has been her best friend of almost twenty years is sobbing uncontrollably on your shoulder. They sound hollow, but they do provide a sure foundation to stand on. Yes, the waters of grief and pain are swirling around you and threaten to swallow you but you find that the promises of God provide a solid piece of ground to stand on. Does it make the pain go away? No, but it keeps your head above the waters. Just yesterday I asked, "Now what? Did Easter really change anything?" Well today, I can tell you that, yes, it does. Jesus' victory over death means that those that leave this earthly existence aren't gone, they have merely arrived at their destination before us. We weren't made for this world, we are just traveling through it. Today, one of my precious former students arrived at her destination before us. We mourn because we are separated for a time, but we find comfort in the promise of being reunited with her when we complete our journey.
2 Corinthians 5:1-9
5 For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. 2 We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. 3 For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies.[a] 4 While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. 5 God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.
6 So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. 7 For we live by believing and not by seeing. 8 Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him. 10 For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.
