Over the past couple months I've walked some tough roads with families that have lost loved ones. And through these steps I've determined that grief is personal, intimate and unique for each one of us. God shares in our suffering and grief in that the Lord knows the loss that we feel. Jesus Himself cried with Mary and Martha in the loss of their brother. At the same time God gives us love and hope in moments like these, for God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in time of need. He is the creator of love and His love never ends.
Some ask "if God is loving, why is there death?" I see it as because God is loving there is death. Let me explain because that might sound confusing! Can you imagine what a burden it would be to live life forever in the way we know it here on earth? There's a lot to our lives that is fantastic, for some of us. But what would it be like to forever have pain in our bodies or to be stuck at the bottom of poverty forever? When God gave us free will, we got sickness, pain and brokenness with the package deal. That's free will and we bought it all wanting to be independent from God
And trust me the Bible agrees death is wrong. We were not supposed to die. Loved ones weren't supposed to be separated. This is not the world that God envisioned when He created it. But free will entered. And with it, brokenness, separation, and death also entered. And like a big bully, death has been defeating everyone - young and old, rich and poor - in its path ever since.
So what does our Loving Father do? God has seen all the evil, the madness and the pain that goes on in the world, and God has determined that at some point this will stop for each of us. He has a plan. Thanks be to God that in 1 Corinthians 15:54-55, death, the big bully, was defeated once and for all on the cross! For us, even on days like this, we can shout victoriously, "Death has been swallowed up in victory." Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
I don't always understand God's plan. I can't try to fathom the way He knits billions of details together everyday so that I might enjoy life. I don't understand why some people die early and others live to be a century. I do know that I trust Jesus. I trust that He's got it all figured out. That He is in control and His heart breaks a million times more than mine when He walks with people in grief and that He wanted this to all be different.... vut this I also know, His love isn't different. It's perfect, unlimited and freely given to us all.
So if you are in a season of grief, I pray you will turn into God, because He wants you to live a life of victory.
