O Death, Where is Your Sting?

Many of you know of the sudden passing of Lisa's father, Don Vander Roest, this past Sunday. After a day of fall chores outside on Saturday, a morning greeting at church on Sunday, followed by a good lunch, Don laid down for his well deserved Sunday afternoon nap and never woke up. No warning. No sickness. He was just gone.

Of course, some of you have put together the shocking nature of Don's passing with the Sunday school class that Dick Malone and I have been teaching, Living in the Light of Dying. The premise of the class is that, as humans, all of us are facing death sooner or later, either suddenly or drawn out. Against that reality the question presents itself, "are we ready?" Are we ready should death come suddenly? It knows no boundaries of age, ethnicity, social class or worldly success rate. Death comes for all.

But the further premise of the class is that the death and resurrection of Jesus makes death a defeated enemy. So that, though it may sting, the stinger has lost its venom. For the Christian death has no hold on us, therefore, though we may respect it, though we may feel the suffering, grief, and sorrow connected with it, we ultimately do not fear it. Because of that, we can live with both a respect for the brevity of life, and a hope that this life is not the end.