“Who can't be mystified by that question of, ‘What happens after you die?’”

What happens after you die?

It’s one of the biggest questions we can consider. Perhaps it’s one of the biggest questions we, as Christians, can consider as well.

The problem? In part, it’s an unanswerable question. We can’t picture the afterlife. We can’t fathom a world beyond this one. We can’t know it in full until we’re there. For as much as we may think we know or can imagine about what happens after our Earthly passing, our human minds simply can’t grasp the weight of eternity and what it holds for us.

In that space – the one between what we know to be true here, and what we aren’t sure will come next. The one that holds the secrets of heaven.

That’s where faith is built.

There is so much the Lord has revealed to us. So much we can firmly know about who He is and how He’s called us to live. So much we can be confident in when it comes to God. Those are the things made known to us in the here and now. The things we can make known to those around us. The things we can pass on to the generations of faith behind us. The things that lead us in the way of the Lord here on Earth.

The rest? Well, the rest belongs to God. They’re the things we won’t fully know until we’re standing in the midst of the afterlife.

If we allow our faith to be strengthened in the here and now—if we lean into what we do know to be true and trust the Lord with the rest—we’ll better be able to walk forward holding both what’s revealed and what’s unknown in our hearts until the day of eternity arrives.

A Prayer

Lord, I confess that I have questions about what remains unknown to me in eternity. But with that, I also have faith in You—the God who holds all secrets of heaven and earth. Help me to choose faith in the face of what I don’t know, trusting that as I walk in Your ways here, there is more awaiting me with You, both here and now and in the life beyond this one.