“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” Psalm 116:15
This verse can seem so cold and uncaring. When you’ve lost someone you love, how can God call that precious? I’ve heard people say things like God just wanted that person with Him. Well, that’s pretty selfish! Or God knew the deceased needed rest. Why didn’t He just give them strength to continue? Last week I said goodbye to the body that had housed the spirit of my mother for 98 years. That body was worn out! It had served her well, but it was simply done for. That fact made it so much easier to lose her to death. What about when you lose a loved one early in life, maybe in an accident or to an insidious disease like cancer? A friend lost her beloved son in a car wreck, and I remember her saying that she wasn’t going to ask God to give her the reason because no reason was good enough. How can God call that precious?
I think that we need to look at death from God’s perspective. We have such a tiny view of reality. We only see what is on this earth and within the confines of time. But when you compare the time on earth with eternity there is really very little difference between 20 years and 98 years. When the length of our life span occurs as a blip on the radar screen of eternity, our lifetime is miniscule regardless of how many years we live.
I believe a big part of the purpose of our time on earth is to prepare us for eternity. God is in the process of molding us and forming us more and more into the image of His Son. Right now we’re in the workshop, being perfected by God. It’s hard work to be in God’s workshop. And sometimes, it’s downright painful. But it’s all to prepare us for something much greater. Therefore, our death is almost a graduation of sorts. At death, we graduate into the existence God ultimately wants for all of us. It’s precious to God because He knows that in death, we finally become how He created us to be. I think that while we’re on earth, we distort ourselves into something different. We do that by allowing sin in our lives or by choosing to be what we think others want us to be. In heaven, sin no longer has power over us and we will be who He created us to be. Such freedom! Such joy! Such love!
I know that God is delighting in the freedom being experienced by every single one of His saints that are now fully alive in Him! If your puny, frail, temporary body is still living it means you still have work to do. Either you need to get right with God, or you need to tell someone else about God. Or both. If it’s the first, I encourage you to go to Him right now and ask Him what work needs to be done to prepare you for your heavenly home. If you’ve never given your heart to Him, start there! That’s the most important. Then we need to continually ask God what part of us needs purifying. As for the second part of our purpose, if you don’t know who you’re supposed to tell about God, don’t worry. He will make that clear. The telling may be something obvious like sharing your own faith journey, or it may be much more subtle, like sharing love and kindness with someone else. If you’re in a season of grief, know that it’s just that: a season. Every tear shed will someday be wiped away. You may think you’ll never make it through but you will. God will make sure of that. And know, too, that if you are living in Him, you will someday experience a joy and freedom that we on earth can only imagine. In heaven we will be free indeed!