Death is not something we typically look forward to and we try not to think about it too often. And perhaps this is as it should be as we were created for life. But we must come to terms with death all the same. And we can even find laughter and joy as that day approaches.
To be sure, death brings a type of violence to our souls. We were created to live for eternity and we struggle to process the reality of someone being here one day and then gone the next.
There’s now a void in our life that cannot be filled. Of course, we can remember and celebrate the life they lived. But this still doesn’t bring them back. In fact, even years from now we will still miss those loved ones who are no longer with us in this life. And there will be deep sadness as we can’t see their face, hear their voice, or feel their embrace.
There’s no escaping this grief.
And there’s still joy and laughter even as we face these realities of death.
We find joy in the good news that death doesn’t have the final word in our story.
Thanks to the work of Christ, we’ve been given victory over sin and death. The sting of death has been removed as we now look forward to our dying bodies being transformed into bodies that will never die.
And, in this way, death becomes another type of birth – the process of leaving one state of reality and entering into a new one. And like the labor pains of birth, the journey of death is generally one of pain and suffering as well. But the pain of both leads to the welcoming of new life.
And so, inasmuch as we grieve no longer having our loved one in this life, we also laugh with joy for the new life they’re entering into, and that we too will one day join.
In the end, feel the full weight of your grief. But grieve as one with hope – laughing with an eager anticipation of the new life still to come.
Photo by Bruno van der Kraan on Unsplash
