A dear brother just recently passed – as did Billy Graham. So, I have been pondering death – the first death that is – recently. If you follow me on my personal blog then you know I suffer from seasonal depression. (Please Note: I am not complaining, I am just stating this for it pertains to my thoughts on this subject.) Now being Christian, and having a Christian upbringing, I have heard the statements about how we are supposed to feel and what we are supposed to see when we see a brother or sister pass away. I have heard people say all of the “He is in a better place now” and so on. But it is one memorial service I was at about a decade ago which really affected my outlook.

When we lose someone, it is absolutely okay to be sad! Don’t let what anyone says make you feel guilt over feeling. The man I consider my pastor, John Z., was giving the eulogy at a dear brother’s service during my senior year of high school. Someone else, who was also rather close to me, told me to rejoice in this brother’s passing. He had had an awesome life, full of service to the Lord, and full of many amazing things, but my pastor, John, was standing at podium and he was quiet for a moment as he was overcome with his sorrow. John looked out at us and through his own emotion he said, “We are sad today, not because we mourn for our brother. He is standing face to face with Christ, no longer feeling pain or problems. We are sad, for our own loss.” We can be sad! In fact I might say we are supposed to be sad. In fact Solomon in Ecclesiastes tells us there is “a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;” (Eccl 3:4).

This affected me so greatly! It is so freeing!

I will tell you right now, I am sad! I am trying to stay in the right frame of mind, however, and not let this sadness take over my thoughts. I am praying and keeping Him first in my life. I am trying to listen to the promises God gives us in his word. Things where Jesus says (all ESV):

And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” ~ Luke 23:43

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

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” ~ John 14:1-3

But I think the greatest promise about this is what Paul wrote to the Thessalonians:

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 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. 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. 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. Therefore encourage one another with these words. ~ 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (ESV)

Just as Jesus told the thief on the cross he would be the Lord that very day in paradise, so we know when the Lord returns He will bring those with Him. These verses won’t drive away the sadness, but they do bring assurance to us. We need this assurance other wise we will grieve as those who have no hope. We have a blessed hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For God loved the world so much he sent the Lord Jesus and gave him for us that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life with Him.

Please lift up all those who have recently lost family! Pray for them. Pray their passing could be a great witness to for the Lord in this time.