Psalm 116:15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
1 Thessalonians 4:13, 16, 17 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope...For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
Our lives are precious to God. And He knows the moment of our physical death. But our physical death is not the end - not for the Christian. And so, though we grieve at the death of a loved one, we do not grieve without hope. We know that we will see them again. We KNOW. And we cling to that truth.
To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. When our nephew Baret was so very ill and in a coma, and we did not know whether he would live or die, our girls asked about Baret and were sad for him, wondering if he was scared. I told them that he was in a coma, which was kind of like sleeping, and that for Baret, the outcome was going to be good either way. Either he would wake up to see his mom and dad again, or he would wake up to see Jesus. He would be happy either way. Of course, we wanted him to wake up here, for our sake. And God performed a miracle, and Baret did wake up here and we praise Him for that.
When Christians do die, it is often referred to as sleep in the Bible. A very apt description really, because our physical bodies are "sleeping". Our spiritual soul is with Christ, while our physical self is sleeping, waiting for Christ to return and resurrect our physical bodies to be reunited with our spiritual souls.
Once we become Christians, we are always in Christ. We live in Christ, we die in Christ, we spiritually live in Christ while our physical bodies sleep in Christ, we rise with Christ and we will live forever with Christ. When Christ returns, those who have already died will rise first, and then those who are still alive at the time of Christ's return will be caught up together with them as He takes us up to heaven.
John MacArthur speaks on this passage beautifully in What Happens To Christians Who Die Part 1 and Part 2.
Through the years I've had funerals, continue to have funerals of unbelieving people or funerals of believing people where unbelievers are in the family and the hopelessness is terrifying. The terrible sense of finality, no reunion, no future, nevermore the touch of the hand, the sound of the voice, never again, finality. To be so consumed in life with a person and then have the curtain drop so totally absolutely and finally is a cause for deep despair. The greater the love the greater the pain and it is the pain of hopelessness....
I don't want your grief to be that dead-end grief, that grief that comes to people because there's no contemplation of reunion. I don't want you to think that Christians ever say a final goodbye because they don't. That's a great thought, isn't it? You never say goodbye to a believer for the last time. There will always be another time....
Reunion is here, beloved, it is. It is also in the very terminology of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 1 when it's called "our gathering together to Him." As we are brought to Him we are gathered together to each other. There will be reunion. There will be a gathering together. And he says you don't need to fear and you don't need to grieve about it like people who are looking at a dead end.
We need to get that somehow deeply embedded in our hearts, don't we? That is our confident hope. Partings here are just brief. (emphasis mine)
As Christians, we believe Jesus paid the penalty for our sin with His death on the cross. We believe in the power of His resurrection, which means we believe in His power to resurrect us when He returns. And God has revealed that there will be a reunion, a gathering together where the dead in Christ shall rise first, and then those who are still alive will join them to meet the Lord and be with Him forever.
And then we will finally, truly, be home. As Christians, our souls yearn for heaven. And that yearning only grows the more precious family and friends go home before us. I already have my dad and two babies waiting for me, not to mention grandparents and other extended family. While we remain here on earth we will be homesick, but we do not grieve without hope. We do grieve, but with the confident hope of a future reunion. And what a precious hope that is!
Homesick by Mercy Me
You're in a better place, I've heard a thousand times
And at least a thousand times I've rejoiced for you
But the reason why I'm broken, the reason why I cry
Is how long must I wait to be with you
I close my eyes and I see your face
If home's where my heart is then I'm out of place
Lord, won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
I've never been more homesick than now
Help me Lord, cause I don't understand your ways
The reason why, I wonder if I'll ever know
But, even if you showed me, the hurt would be the same
Cause I'm still here so far away from home
I close my eyes and I see your face
If home's where my heart is then I'm out of place
Lord, won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
I've never been more homesick than now
In Christ, there are no goodbyes
And in Christ, there is no end
So I'll hold onto Jesus with all that I have
To see you again
To see you again
And I close my eyes and I see your face
If home's where my heart is then I'm out of place
Lord, won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
Won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
Won't you give me strength to make it through somehow
I've never been more homesick than now
