Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Life. What a precious commodity. Yet it seems that all to often we treat it as something that will always be there. Then we find it is gone, we struggle. Death has a way of causing us to see life from a different perspective.
With all that is taking place in our world, death continues to confront us at every turn. The reports on Covid-19 always include deaths due the pandemic. Or we find that a loved one or a friend has died related to an ongoing health issue. It seems that death is always in front of us, but then we see life continuing on.
Death brings a struggle in our hearts as we face the separation of those who have in some way impacted our lives. We question how we will be able to move forward or even how we are supposed to live as we have in the past. Yet life moves forward.
Life goes on all around us, yet none of us knows what the next moment will hold for us. James 4:13-15 says -- 13Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” 14Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”
I recognize that death does not reserve itself for persons in just one age group. The young and old are all confronted with death. Yet it seems so difficult when those who are younger and seem to have a full life ahead of them face death. We just expect those who are old to face death.
So, where is God in the midst of all this pain and hurt? He is right where He always is – reaching out in love and compassion to carry us through. I like the first verse of the song “God Walks the Dark Hills; it goes like this -------
God walks the dark hills, the highways, the byways,
He walks on the billows of life’s troubles sea,
He walks through the cold dark night, shadows of midnight,
God walks the dark hills just to guide you and me.
We may not know what tomorrow holds for any of us, but like it is said -- we know Who holds tomorrow! We may not understand all that takes place in life, but we can be assured that our God is with us. He is Immanuel – God with us – both now and forever.
There are those even around you that are walking through the ‘dark hills’ even now. Pray that they will reach out to God even as He reaches out to them. You may well be passing through a time of struggle yourself.
Hear the words Jesus spoke to Martha in John 11:25-26, 25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Let us respond as Martha (John 11:27) – “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.”
Paul wrote in 2 Cor. 1:3-4 – 3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort; 4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
I pray that the comfort of God will make its way into the hearts and lives of each one passing through their time of sorrow.
JESUS, JESUS, JESUS, there IS something about that name!!
Christ only, always,
Bro. Paul
