When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
 “O death, where is your victory?
    O death, where is your sting?”
1 Corinthians 15:54-55

Others’ End

I usually enjoy seeing my Facebook memories. They remind me of happy times with family and friends and help me keep track of when various plants bloom from year to year. But sometimes the memories are painful. Such was the case recently when a post from January 2021 appeared. In it, I informed friends and family of Mom’s leg pain and asked those reading the post to please pray for wisdom regarding a proper diagnosis and treatment.

What I didn’t know then but am woefully aware of now is that three short months later, Mom would no longer be with us. She endured far greater suffering in those final months, especially in her last days after she broke her hip.

With each passing year, I know how life ends for more and more close friends and relatives.

I recently came across a list of folks to pray for that I wrote more than a year ago. While some on the list have recovered and are doing well, four are now with the Lord, fully healed like Mom, but oh how we miss them.  

February 6th would have been my husband Ray’s 68th birthday. But a few weeks after his 39th birthday, he went to work on a beautiful spring day, suffered a fatal heart attack, and never came home.

Life after the Fall is fragile indeed.

My End

I don’t know what my end-of-life story will look like, but I know my end will come, too, unless Jesus returns first. Since losing Mom and Dad, I’ve been more aware of my own mortality and of being the senior generation in my family.

Somewhere in the recesses of my mind, I try to deny death. Yet having a front-row seat to my parents’ final months makes denial impossible. They were both capable, independent, hardworking people well into their 80s. Nevertheless, the ravages of age finally caught up with them, as they will with me unless I’m taken quickly, as Ray was.

Not the End!

During Ray’s funeral, one of the pastors declared, “For believers, death is not the end, beloved. It is a most glorious beginning!”

Over the years, that statement has become a touchstone for me. Losing a loved one still hurts because death separates us. We long for one more conversation, one more Starbucks date, one more stroll around the neighborhood, recognizing that those one-mores aren’t possible.

Yet we grieve with hope, knowing the separation is only temporary. Our loved ones are safely Home. Their end here was only the beginning of life in eternity. They will not return to us, but one day we will join them and the great throng around the throne, praising the Lamb forever and ever.

Blessed Assurances

Each day, I pray for those who are grieving recent losses, often adding, “All of us are missing someone, Lord. Please be with us, too.”

The raw pain of loss gradually recedes, replaced by a deep soul-sigh of longing that endures until it’s our turn to go Home. In my experience, we never stop missing our loved ones. So I’ll conclude this post with some of my favorite Scripture passages, those I turn to when I need to be reminded that death is not the end but a most glorious beginning for those who love the Lord. I pray they will comfort your heart, too.

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 14:2-3).

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. Emphasis mine.)

I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”

 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:50-57).

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place[a] of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” (Revelation 21:1-5)