So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Genesis 1: 27, NKJV
Can someone tell me what joy there is in dying? Just this past week a good friend of mine officiated another funeral service for someone who had passed. My own experience of the death experience was not a good one as it took me some time to get over my mothers passing. Yet every now and then I hear of a family member, someone's dearly beloved who, instead of fearing their final moments in this life, eagerly await what's in front of them. Although they know not what awaits them on the other side, they embrace it with gladness. Why is that? Well, we're told that we who follow Jesus definitely have a joyous homecoming awaiting us in that day {1 Cor 15:51, Phil 1:23, 1 John 3:2-3}. Of course, many a Christian has been told from a young age that death is not something which we should be fearing. On the contrary, we should be celebrating in the victory of Christ Jesus over death itself {Romans 6:9}. Yet tell this to someone who has just lost a loved one and you might not get the smiling faced happy answer you were looking for. Death is an uncertain possibility. Despite what we may know about what our future in the Lord brings us, we are probably not looking forward to dying. Maybe it's the old and crucified self in us (Except that we never had one to begin with) that brings about thoughts of uncertainty. Was I good enough? Were my sins forgiven? Did I accomplish enough for Gods liking? All of these thoughts may be going through our mind in those final moments. I, of course, would not know as I've never been on the other side. Still we fear what we do not know.
Fear is not in love, but perfect love is casting out fear, for fear has chastening. Now he who is fearing is not perfected in love.
1 John 4: 18, Concordant New Testament
I firmly believe that our own fear of death resides in our own fear of the unknown. After all, who of us has tasted the other side then decided it wasn't for them and returned once again from whence they came? These instances are few and far between. A few years ago came the film Heaven Is Real, depicting the story of Nebraska pastor whose own son claimed to have been to the other side and returned. As if this weren't confusing enough, once he returns the youngster begins talking of things he has seen over there. Things by all intents and purposes he could not have seen. If this were but a isolated incident we might be able to pass it off as imagination. However, there have been many documented incidents of people passing over and witnessing that other side which so many of us are in fear of experiencing. Let's be honest, if we Christians began speaking joyfully about our homecoming, the world might just think we were nothing but a death cult. People just don't celebrate these things. Perhaps this is why the Father assures us that we have nothing to fear when that day arrives. His intention is not to have us in fear of what should be a joyous occasion. As I attended to my mother in her final days, my own thoughts were not on her fears, but on her reassurance that God was calling her home. Yes, I was afraid, but my own fears stemmed from losing my mother who had been with me from the beginning. I wasn't thinking of her fears, but of my own. I truly believe that in my act of selfishness my mother was trying to reassure me that everything would be ok. At that point it was not her that needed the reassurance...but me.
~Scott~
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