God's Cure: Devotions From Time of GraceSample

Loss of a loved one

There are no good funerals.

Even when a 95-year-old passes, even when the death brought an end to pain and suffering, the family still grieves a loss. How much more it hurts when the deceased was “too young to die.” When the breadwinner dies, when a child dies, when there’s been a terrible accident, where can you go with your grief? How can you survive?

The patriarch Jacob knows how you feel. He was told the news that his young son had been slaughtered by a wild animal. “Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. ‘No,’ he said, ‘in mourning will I go down to the grave to my son.’ So his father wept for him” (Genesis 37:34,35).

Jacob could see no comfort or relief anywhere. That’s why he and all who are coping with a bitter loss need their loved ones and friends who are believers to surround them with gospel comfort. They need help to celebrate the significance of a life; they need someone to hug and share their sorrow; they need someone to assure them that in Christ we never die. We just transition to a new and better life.

We haven’t lost those who die in the Lord. We know exactly where they are.