Day #19 Beautiful Hope

Death. It doesn't really matter how a person dies that catches our breath...it's that they're gone. Yes, we can analyze and compare stories of cancer and brain aneurysms and organ failure and old age...and even murder...but the end result is that we are left with this feeling of empty lonely purposelessness.

Death strikes. We are never prepared enough. We can't be ready enough. When that last breath is drawn and you realize it won't be followed by another raising of the chest and an exhale, no amount of preparation, of God-knowledge, of eternal perspective is enough for that first moment without the one you love. Its heavy thickness is near strangulation strength.

And then you remember. It may take a moment or a few months of moments ...even years...but your mind finally comprehends and shifts to the beautiful hope we have in Christ. That hope that we will be with our Christian loved ones once again...that this is not the end...this world is not the final stop. The hope ...the resurrection hope...that we can cling to in the worst of times. That same hope that he promised 2000 years ago...the hope that we have in a glorious future that He's prepared for us in eternity. The hope of His soon return. The hope that believes He keeps His promise. The hope that does not leave us lonely but filled with the beautiful reality that we are not alone as we walk in the day to day...in the weight of grief. We have hope. Hope in Him. Beautiful, beautiful hope.