It's unknown territory for me....
Trying to deal with this broken down life in a broken down world.
I heard from a friend of mine.
Some friends of his lost their six year old son yesterday in a swimming accident.
The intense heartbreak of that couple has to be horrific.
I've been trying to come to terms with the enormity of....what else can you call it -
loss, myself.
Their son, my son, your daughter, his wife, her sister....it goes on.
The 'd' word runs rampant in the world.
It doesn't matter what your status is, or how closely you walk with God and do the right things.
The 'd' word is in this world and can come to your house, too.
I've been thinking and praying about it for a while.
It doesn't make sense how young lives have been snatched away...just like that.
God is big.
Why doesn't he just stop this nonsense from happening and breaking our hearts?
He can do anything, can't he?
Or can he?
This is what I think.
I'm not telling anyone else what to think.
I'm not saying I know anything or that anybody should agree with me.
It's just a thought.
Got it?
I'm not an expert by any means.
Just thinking, maybe....
Here's my take on the whole 'd' word....
The 'd' word came into the world with Lucifer the beautiful, narcissistic angel of music who was jealous of God and wanted the glory for himself.
When he got kicked out of heaven, he took some stupid angels with him and they started their campaign of death and destruction because there was nothing good in them, only evil.
God created Adam and Eve - beautiful, happy, alive forevermore in the Garden of Eden.
It was the way it was supposed to be.
But, because evil himself was around, he decided to try to destroy what God created in his image.
So, he tempted them.
I'm thinking he may have been tempting them, breaking them down before the day of the forbidden fruit.
So that day when he showed up, Eve was already entertaining negative, doubt-filled 'what ifs'.
When evil mentioned eating the fruit, she thought, why not.
Evil knew he was bound for hell - a horrible place just for him and his angels, but he didn't want to go there alone. Who better to take with him than God's prized creation, man created in God's image.
It worked.
Sin entered with disobedience and with it, the 'd' word.
Thanks for eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve - it takes two, you know.
So, they were banished from the Garden of Eden where we'd all be living if it hadn't been for evil, temptation and disobedience.
That is when the 'd' word began to be a household name.
Cain killed Abel.
Death had begun.
Adam died.
Eve died.
I believe every time someone died, God was sad.
He hated death, but because man had listened to evil, there it was.
I'm not saying those people went to hell, that's a topic for another day. I'm just saying they died...the 'd' word is what this is about.
The thing about God, is he gives his creation freedom. He is not a dictator or manipulator. He shows us the right way, so we can avoid heartache and pain, but he gives us the freedom to choose.
Adam and Eve chose death, and so it was.
What could God do? There was only one way to overcome eternal death and damnation, and that was to end it himself, and he could only do that by allowing death and sin to enter his body so he could destroy it.
That's when he sent Jesus, the living Word made flesh.
Jesus accounted for our sins and died, taking all the ugliness of evil on himself.
He overcame death so it had no sting.
Sure, people would still die on this earth because of sin, and our mortality, but the sting was gone because Jesus took the keys to hell, and had the keys to heaven. Heaven's gates were open for his creation again. He died, went to hell, overcame all its grotesque ugliness and rose to life everlasting giving all of us the right to go there.
I believe death is the worst sin has to offer, that's why it's so horrible, why it hurts so, so bad.
It's irregular, unnatural.
We were never supposed to experience it.
Because we experience it, God has, too.
He understands everything we go through.
I believe he hurts, too, being separated from us. He loves us.
When we accept the gift of Jesus' life for our death, he knows he will be with us again.
Until then, he misses us and hurts, too - death separates people who love.
The Bible says, "Death where is your sting?" Death does not have preeminence over our lives because Christ gave death a lethal blow by his life.
So! The terrible hurt is because death is not the norm for God's creation...it is a result of the evil one and the weakness of mankind. The victory in it is that Jesus overcame death and the grave once and for all when he went there and took the keys of sin and death.
When a believer passes from here, he goes from life to life.
Caleb went from this life to heaven's life.
My friend's friends' son walked into the arms of Jesus.
That lessens the blow.
We have hope.
However hurtful death is in this life, there is an eternal life waiting for us and no weapon can stand against that.
As difficult as it is for me to come to terms with the 'd' word, it helps to know heaven is real. I know Jesus is real and eternal life is ours.
I like what one evangelist said. He said Christians should change how they talk about the 'd' word. Your loved ones aren't dead. He was saying one day that death is not death to the believer-- it is changing location. John 11 says that whoever believes in Him shall never die!
When we leave this world, we pass from life to eternal life. I love knowing that.
My thoughts have also been on heaven and earth and reality. I'll save that for another time.
In the meantime, thanks for taking time to share in my thoughts.
Be at peace.
Selah.
