Momentum For Monday, April 3rd 2023
“…Death has been swallowed up on victory.” (1 Corinthians 15:54b)
The only grandmother I knew died several years ago. As her health grew worse, hospice was called in to her home and our family came in for a final visit and goodbye. It was sad, but it was also one of the most beautiful experiences I’ve seen in life. I understand that it can be confusing talking about a juxtaposition of death in life, but hold tight.
While it was such an awful thing to see my grandmother sick and getting worse in her final years, there was some good in those final days. First of all, we were thankful that we could all gather around her. But we were also thankful that we did not have to do it in a hospital where there would be a lot more restriction to what she and our family were allowed to do. She was in the comfort of her own home, the place she preferred best.
For me, the best part of the experience was one of my grandmother’s final wishes. She asked for a family friend to come in and sing one of her favorite worhsip songs. There was just a few of us in the room as our friend serenaded her on her deathbed and there wasn’t a dry eye to be found. We all had tears streaming down our faces. Words can’t do justice to the reverence and wonder in that moment. It marked me.
My grandmother was a Christian and her faith, while being far from perfect, made her death so much more painless. It wasn’t painless in the sense that it didn’t impact us or make us grieve, but that death didn’t have the final say. I knew it wasn’t a final goodbye, it was just a goodbye for now.
This is what resurrection did for us. We may celebrate it once a year, but those of us in Christ get to live the benefit every day. Death, albeit painful and agonizing, is not the end-all, be-all. Our fate isn’t sealed on our date of death, it’s sealed by the Christ which gives us eternal life. While other gods claim death for their religion, Christ is the only one that died and rose again. This is what separates Christianity from every other religion and this friends, is the beauty of Easter.
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."
(1 Peter 1:3)