Yesterday I talked by telephone with a childhood friend who values the message of
Good Friday. She didn't express it exactly that way, but her trust in God is tied to the message of the resurrection and the hope that is ours through faith in Jesus Christ. Scripture teaches that Christ was the sacrificial lamb slain before the foundation of the world. His death on the cross ultimately was orchestrated by a loving Heavenly Father to pay for the penalty for our sins. It is through faith in him that our sins are forgiven.
Scripture is clear: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
When it comes to negotiating the grief process, my friend is no stranger to understanding the difference one's faith makes in relying on the hope that is ours in the midst of life's darkest hours.
Late in 2020, my friend's husband died following over a month's hospitalization for COVID-19. He, too, negotiated his illness from the threshold of the standing on the promises of God. He said to her shortly before his death, "To be absent from the body, is to be present with the Lord."
Within the past couple of years, she has also stood by the gravesides of her mother and her two brothers. The telephone conversation yesterday was tied to the news of the unexpected death of her son-in-law. He was only 52 years of age.
Historically, his heath has been excellent. Four or five days before his death, he was diagnosed with Bronchitis. The doctor prescribed steroids and inhalers. He didn't bounce back as quickly as he anticipated and told his wife the morning of his death that he planned to go back to the doctor. After lunch, he took a nap and never awakened.
Today, my friend is accompanying her daughter to the funeral home to make funeral arrangements for her husband. She said to me, "Only God can provide the strength we need to get through this."
My heart hurts for her and her family and the pain of grief that seems overwhelming now. I concur with her assessment that only God can provide the strength and the hope that they need, and it comes one day at a time.
One of the reasons that spring is my favorite season of the year is because it resonates with the message of Easter. There is something about the color of green replacing what previously appeared dead foliage from the months of winter. It vividly portrays an answer the question asked by Job: "If a man die, will he live again?"
John Claypool insightfully wrote: "Two things that radically altered Job's situation emerged out of this encounter and they enabled job to move through his grief back to wholeness. One was a new understanding of the past and the other was a fresh vision of the future.
"The first thing God did was to call into question the justice-injustice approach to the mystery of life. God began by asking Job where he had been when the whole drama of creation had begun? What had he done to create his own life, or to call the universe into being, or to make possible the existence of his possessions or his children or his health? In other words, God was reminding Job that the things he had become so indignant about losing actually did not belong to him in the first place.
"They were gifts - gifts beyond his deserving graciously given him by another, and thus not to be possessed or held onto as though they were his. To be angry because a gift has been taken away is to miss the whole point of life. That we ever have the things we cherish is more than we deserve. Gratitude and humility rather than resentment should characterize our handling of the object of life.
"It was this new understanding of the past, this realization that nothing really belongs to us in the sense that we have a right to it, that gave Job a sense of perspective about his losses and started him on the upswing of healing.
"The other insight that came to Job was a fresh vision for the future. God made it clear that he had not been totally defeated by the events of the past but was still capable of giving meaning to life. In other words, apart from all appearances, Job still had a future in God, for God had a future for Job. What Job discovered in his encounter with God was that goodness and mercy can be counted on to follow us all the days of our life, just as the psalmist said. He who has given us the good gifts of the past can be depended on to continue to give meaning to our lives. Our challenge then is to become flexible enough and trusting enough to let this happen."
"Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live." [John 11:25]
All My Best!
Don
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