On Celebrating a Passing
Luke: It’s been a difficult time with COVID and a lot of death all over the place. Here at eMseni, we've had many deaths and many funerals. And so today's devotion from Frank Mussel is going to remind us of the words of Jesus in John 11:25, where He said I am the resurrection and the life the one who believes in Me will live even though they die. And whoever lives by believing in Me will never die.
Even in the face of death, we have hope that there is life on the other side. And so I'm going to hand over to Trevor to explain some of what Frank had to say about this.
Hope in the Face of Death
Trevor: Thanks Luke. This is from chapter 32. It's called “on celebrating a passing.”
Death can be such a sad thing. It's such a challenging time to lose someone special. He writes here talking about Jesus: “The appearance of the Master to His disciples on several occasions after His death reassured them not only of His continuing reality, but also that physical death was nothing to be feared. It was but the passing of one good way of life to a better." And this is what we must remember if we are disciples of Jesus.”
He says to us, “So as followers of Christ, the death of loved ones should give us no cause for grief or despair.” Well, of course we are going to be saddened and we are going to be terribly heartbroken at times. That's normal. That's a human thing that happens.
But is there another side that we can look at? Is there some hope that we have there? Here we go back to that wonderful word of hope. Is there another way to look at this? And he suggests that there is. He suggests, how about celebrating the passing of a loved one to higher service?
Celebrating a Life Passed into Eternity
Frank Russell and his wife actually lost a daughter in childbirth and the way that they ended up looking at this was that, and I quote again from his book, he says “As every anniversary comes around, we do not weep anymore. We give thanks for her life of Christian witness. In the evening we go out to dinner alone or with friends, and celebrate her passing into higher service.”
It's, it's actually a wonderful way to look at it! That person's in a better place with the Lord. It's a wonderful thing to think of that there is something on the other side.
I was very inspired and encouraged to think of life like that, celebrating the passing. Saying that they're in this wonderful place with the Lord.
Luke: This lines up with what Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4:13, where he says that “we don't have to mourn like people who have no hope.” And then he says, “since we believe that Jesus died and rose, so we also believe that God will bring with Him those who have died in Jesus.”
And so these words of Frank’s remind us today that we don't have to grieve without any hope, but that because of life on the other side, through Christ, we can celebrate the passing of a loved one. I pray that you in your grief will also have hope because you trust in the God who brings life eternal.
Lopez Lomong once stood at his own grave and heard his father declare him alive again - a picture of the resurrection every believer receives through Christ's blood. Have you received that new life, or is today the day to come back from spiritual death?