Death is a normal part of life. Today I got the news that no one really wants to hear. My grandpa died a week after he turned 92. He was ready to go and even told my grandma last night that he was ready to go home. He had been suffering from numerous ailments for several years and now he no longer feels that pain. God was gracious enough to save him and now he is at home with his Savior, he is in Glory.

Death is the American Taboo. No one likes to talk about it and most people don’t know how to respond when you tell them that someone close to you has died. As Christians we should not shrink from talking about death. Ecclesiastes 7:2 says, “It is better to go into the house of mourning than to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.” Who has ever gone away from a party and thought, “I really need to change my life. That party really made me think of my mortality and my standing before God.” On the contrary, many people walk away from funerals with eternity on their minds. Not all will do something about it, but as Solomon says in verse 4 that “the heart of the wise is in the house of the mourning…” It is the wise who will be thinking about life and death and take seriously Solomon’s warning at the end of Ecclesiastes that, “The end of the matter all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man (meaning that this is the meaning and purpose of life). For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” (12:13-14). It does matter what we do with our lives. It does matter what we do with Jesus.

Yes I am sad that my grandpa is dead, but it does not end there. Death is not the end for the believer. We do not weep as those who have no hope (1 Thess 4:13). This is the hope we have in Christ.

“For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words” (1 Thess 4:14-18)