A Light for My Path

1 Corinthians 15:55 says:

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

We as Christ believers carry eternity in our souls. We know there is victory in Jesus. Our reward is not in this world; it’s in Heaven. What glorious knowledge to carry in our hearts and minds that we have an amazing ever-after to look forward to.

Still, we live in this world, for now. And because of our human frailty, we must experience death. And the death of our loved ones stings us – tears us apart! – even when we know that person is in Heaven.

My daughter’s father (my former husband) died very unexpectedly this past Wednesday. Her dad’s girlfriend called her with the hard news that she was worried when he didn’t answer her calls and texts. She went to his house and found him unresponsive on the floor. My daughter’s world has suddenly been turned upside-down. Her carefully orchestrated days of balancing the schedules of four very active children (ranging in ages from 10-18), running a busy household while her attorney husband often works 10-hour days, and trying to fit in a gym session or coffee with a friend has been knocked totally askew.

My daughter, Casey, has the unpleasant, and completely unfamiliar, task of being the executor of her dad’s will. And she and her older stepsister are faced with going through their dad’s house and preparing for an estate sale. (Did I mention her dad was a packrat and a clutterer?)

This isn’t the first time my daughter has experienced completely unexpected and devastating death. Her younger sister died in a car accident eight years ago just two months after her wedding. Casey was her maid of honor.

Does God really think those deaths didn’t sting?

A death doesn’t have to be unexpected to sting. My own mother was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer at the age of 58. It was treatable, but not curable. When she died five years later, we were not surprised, but our grief was still as hard. Casey’s stepmother suffered a similar fate. My daughters adored her, and she them. My girls were stung to the core by the loss of both their grandmother and their “bonus” mom.

How do we find victory in any of these circumstances? Are we expected to not grieve the loss of loved ones if we know that they have gone to Heaven and that we will eventually join them there? (I have actually been told this by more than one person who admonished me for grieving. Who said my faith must be weak. But that’s a story for another post.)

Sweet readers, GOD ALLOWS US TO GRIEVE. He expects us to. He understands. Do not let anyone tell you that the Bible says we are not to grieve. Lots of people misinterpret these words in Paul’s first letter to the church in Thessalonica:

¹³ Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. ¹⁴ For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-14

Paul was NOT telling them that they should not grieve. He was saying that if our loved ones have died (fallen asleep) as believers in Jesus as the Christ, they will rise again, just as Jesus did. We have that hope and that promise.

Death hurts us. It stings. We grieve for the people we love and miss. That’s okay. Just remember, it’s not the end of the story.

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Laura