I was reading about the grief another Christian was experiencing about the lose of her young nephew and it brought to my mind and emotions how grief weaves itself into our lives. I also follow a Christian mother who lost her son a few months ago and I am grateful for her insights. The loss of a loved one rips your heart apart. You can’t help but want to wrap them in your arms and share their grief, lessen their pain. But although you can console, you can’t remove the hurt, you can’t make the pain in the heart go away.

A few years ago I was told that I had cancer and that I needed surgery right away but even after surgery, I only had a 17 % chance of being alive in five years. That was 12 years ago. I Cried too when I got that news, but not so much for myself but for those that I would miss, those that I would be separated from.

The scriptures tell us that Jesus cried. He cried at the death of Lazarus, although in this case I don’t think it was only for Lazarus but also for those who loved Lazarus. He cried over Jerusalem from afar and here I’m thinking He was mindful on what could have been.

Hebrews 5:7-8 NIV reads: “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered.”

So Jesus knows, He understands. That doesn’t change the grief we experience but it is comforting. And our heavenly Father knows, He had to be separated from His Son when Jesus took upon Himself our sins. And while Jesus hung on the cross, Jesus experienced the separation from His Father, at the time of His greatest need. While we are in these physical bodies we will never know what anguish Jesus felt at that moment.

We cry now and this is normal. The separation hurts and there is no denying that hurt.

Acts 20:36-38 NIV “When he had finished speaking, he knelt and prayed with them. They all cried as they embraced and kissed him good-bye.  They were sad most of all because he had said that they would never see him again. Then they escorted him down to the ship.”

But we are not left there, the separation is not final.

1st Thessalonians 4:13-18 says: “Now we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also we believe that God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep as Christians. For we tell you this by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will surely not go ahead of those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be suddenly 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.”

But ….. there will be joy again, there will be gladness within our hearts when we are re-united with our Christian loved ones.

I don’t presume to know this hurt. I don’t presume to understand why some are taken before their time. I don’t presume to have an answer to why.

But God’s word does give us a look into what is in store for us after we leave this physical body.

Psalm 65:4 ESV “Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple!”

Worthy is the Lamb! Blessings!

Filed under: Apologetics, Christian, New Testament, Old Testament, Religion Tagged: Christianity, Faith