\u201cHe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Revelation 21:4<\/p>\n
A few months ago, a good friend\u2019s stepfather passed away after years of declining health.\u00a0 A few weeks later, another friend\u2019s mother lost her battle with breast cancer.\u00a0 And then I heard of a couple who recently lost their 2-year-old child.<\/p>\n
This string of passings, has caused me to reflect on all this loss, all this death.\u00a0 And as I sat at my friend\u2019s stepfather\u2019s funeral and watched everything but the walls grieve and heave with sorrow, Revelation 21:4 came to mind.\u00a0 \u201cDeath shall be no more.\u201d\u00a0 Won\u2019t that be something?\u00a0 No more hospitals, no more funerals, no more caskets or cemeteries.\u00a0 But as that verse reverberated in my head over the following several days, a promise much deeper revealed itself and I found my heart longing after heaven in a new and powerful way.<\/p>\n
\u201cDeath shall be no more.\u201d\u00a0 What if that verse applies to death beyond physical death?\u00a0 What if that promise covers every kind of death, big or small, that we experience in this life, on this earth?\u00a0 Another dear friend is currently wrestling with the possibility that her marriage is dying; that the death of her vows, her partnership, her union, is impending and imminent.\u00a0 I can tell you after listening to her desperate heart that she could definitely use less of this kind of death.\u00a0 And then there is my 11-year-old son.\u00a0 He came home from school not too long ago and a classmate had enlightened him to the word \u201cbisexual.\u201d\u00a0 And there in my kitchen, there was a death of innocence.\u00a0 A small piece of his naivety breathed its last right there at my table. And as a mother longing to protect her child, I would have given nearly anything for less of this kind of death.\u00a0 Or what about friendship?\u00a0 Nearly a year ago, someone I thought was a friend found fault with a decision I had made and began spewing venom like I\u2019d never experienced.\u00a0 Her words and opinions quickly deteriorated into betrayal, lies, and intentional malice.\u00a0 And so, a friendship died, violently and loudly.\u00a0 And less of this kind of death would have been welcome.<\/p>\n
Now I realize that the latter part of the verse covers some of what I\u2019ve just mentioned.\u00a0 \u201c\u2026neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore\u2026\u201d\u00a0 But death is an entirely different beast all together.\u00a0 Yes, I am thrilled at the promise of no more crying or pain, but often times, mourning and pain have an end date.\u00a0 They stay for a while, make our lives miserable and then find the exit door.\u00a0 Not so with death.\u00a0 It is permanent.\u00a0 Resurrection, unfortunately, rarely happens this side of heaven.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, there are also a fair amount of deaths we experience every day that may not induce pain or crying.\u00a0 But they are deaths nonetheless.\u00a0 Many of us have experienced the death of a hope or dream.\u00a0 Perhaps something we longed to do or become and life has simply taken another direction.\u00a0 And while the new direction may be fulfilling or enriching, there was still, somewhere along the way, a dream that died.<\/p>\n
I know that for me, personally, there are often deaths regarding expectations.\u00a0 Frequently, I have anticipations or hopes for others around me, as well as myself, and they are simply not met.\u00a0 And I have to die to my expectations.\u00a0 And although these may not be wept over or mourned, they are still deaths and something that I am anxious to have less of.<\/p>\n
Scripture mentions all kinds of things about heaven: a mansion with many rooms, a city of gold, great rewards.\u00a0 These things are all grand and glorious in their own right.\u00a0 But my longing for heaven has nothing to do with gold streets, a house, or even some kind of return or prize for my faithfulness.\u00a0 My ache for the eternal is spurred on and fueled by that one promise in Revelation.\u00a0 \u201cDeath shall be no more.\u201d\u00a0 Death shall be no more.\u00a0 I can\u2019t even wrap my head around that promise.\u00a0 I cannot conceive of an existence that brings nothing but life from sunrise to sunset.\u00a0 The idea of it is both foreign and exhilarating.<\/p>\n
I am tired of death.\u00a0 I am weary from shouldering death, in some capacity, each and every day.\u00a0 We all are.\u00a0 Ask the widow, ask the single mother, ask the fatherless child and the waitress at a caf\u00e9 in Hollywood.\u00a0 Ask the prostitute and the drug addict.\u00a0 Ask the washed up athlete or the alienated high school student.\u00a0 We are surrounded by death.\u00a0 And I am certain that death is something we all need less of.\u00a0 And while ultimately, we can rest and rejoice in the promise that death itself will die, in the meantime, we can cling to the giver of the promise.\u00a0 While we hold on fiercely to the message, we must also hold on to the messenger.\u00a0 But that, my friends, is a topic for another day.\u00a0 Until then, take heart dear one, for \u201cdeath shall be no more.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n