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I have three friends who are on the threshold of leaving this planet due to illnesses. As I prepare to say good bye to them, I am encouraged that they are all solid believers in Christ and that they will be resurrected into new bodies just as Jesus was. That is a great expectation.

All of us are biologically dying a little bit each day. Life is full of heart breaking stories of one death after another. Many people measure their lives by how many deaths they have observed or been affected by. Some people fear death every day. Others refuse to think about it…EVER! Such is the diversity of experience when it comes to the end of this life.

Death is that last climactic moment when we might exclaim like Christ on the cross…”It is finished”. His death of course was the ultimate plan for redeeming mankind from the penalty and sting of physical death because of our sinful natures. He died once for all so that our deaths would simply be the beginning of REAL life…eternal life. More importantly, He rose from the dead in order that we too might follow into his eternal plan and rest in our new bodies He has promised and was seen in by thousands of witnesses. Jesus and His resurrection was our “proof of concept”.

There is both beauty and ugliness in death. The final toll of sin on our fleshly bodies is not a beautiful thing. Whether we go out with a shout of defiance, or in quiet submission to the inevitable…either way our final breath can turn into the greatest moment of celebration if we truly believe in the promised eternal life with our creator.

How we have lived often determines how those final moments or days are experienced. Some of us see the end coming for a long time and have to come to terms with what manner or thinking will dominate our experience. Others, perhaps more fortunate, go out in a flame of living. Suddenly our lives can be snuffed out by a physical accident or sudden attack that gave us no time to further consider how we should live. In general, WE choose how we will live in this life while God decides when and how we will live in the next. The key difference is in whose presence our souls will spend eternity with. Will we choose darkness and nothingness…or will we choose light and total abundance?

I have been angry at God various times over the decades regarding inexplicable deaths of “good people” close to me in their 20s and 30s. I have never understood children suffering from disease, deprivation, or abuse. I could never hear an answer to my “why” questions in the moment. Now decades later, I can vaguely see purpose from those deaths in their kids and family’s lives that explain the purpose of early deaths. For the believer who dies, it should not be sad. For the remaining loved ones…it is a challenge to overcome separation and hold on to the hope of faith we cannot always see or feel.

Death provides the moments where God gives us our biggest lessons, if only to show us the frivolity and relative insignificance of THIS life…compared to the next one. Yet, we acknowledge the pain of loved ones losing the presence and spirit of their departed friends or family. We all know our ultimate destiny and thus identify heavily with those who pass before us. Perhaps OUR pain in losing someone close is simply the result of our holding on to this life too close or having fear in following them into the unknown abyss.

While it would be rare, I wonder if I can get to the point of simply ENVYING those who die. What if instead of crying over a loss, my tears would actually be tears of jealousy saying “Lord, why couldn’t it be me?”. Or shouldn’t our tears simply be of happiness for our loved one no longer suffering, wondering, or failing in the flesh but having OVERCOME this life with that passage to their ultimate destination? Can we celebrate and dance to the music of overcoming death?

The simultaneous ugliness and beauty of death is a mystery. We struggle to hold on to that we cannot keep. Mankind can do nothing to change the ultimate course and fate of sin’s curse…yet for the redeemed it is a beautiful metamorphosis into the ultimate creation we were meant to be…in the presence of God.

We are born to be challenged in life and defeat the sting of death. Life is overcoming obstacles. Life is pursuing victories. Life is a race…to an end we cannot see clearly. All we know by faith is that the end of this race leads to an eternal rest and peace that is literally “out of this world”. The only good that remains in THIS world is the good example of love and works demonstrated by our friends and loved ones passed on before us. Only memories will remain in this world of what we thought, said, and did. Maybe some monuments will inadequately attempt to summarize our lives on this side…but even a pyramid will be nothing compared to the glory of knowing God and the power of His resurrection on the other side.

The promise of entering His presence is both a blessing and a fear. It will depend on our relationship and attitude towards Him in this short life that determines which it will be.

As for those of us who remain behind, we should want to see our friend or loved one pass on. We should rejoice when a believer is out of their pain and misery. We miss them terribly, but if we share in their faith we will share in their reward and victory. We are not far behind them…at any age.