Words For The Grieving

Death is real. It hits everyone at some time or another. Sometimes deeth comes after long months of suffering. The end is predicted and can actually be relief for both the sufferer and those wsatching the suffering. At other times, death comes stealthily and unexpectedly. You just don't see it coming and you have no time to prepare. It is both harsh and cruel as death put icy hands on your loved one suddenly snatching them from you into eternity. 

Toby Mac is a superstar. I Christian music celebrity. He began with a group called DC Talk. His pop and rap lyrics took young Christians by storm. His rap rythyms were ahead of the Chrisitan radio programming times, who refused to play their songs. 

Eventually Toby Mac went out on this own. To say he is a musical genius is an understatement. His abitlity to adapt different musical styles and messages keeps him atop the music charts and among the best selling albums. 

Recently, his 21 year old son died. Toby Mac just wrote a song in tribute of his son. I predict it will top the charts in no time. The message resonates with many people. The song is called "2." You can listen to it on www.youtube.com I think one line might minister from one grieving faother to other grieving people. "Now God has you in Heaven but I still have you in my heart."

That is the truth for anyone forced to endure life without someone they love who died. Well, that is the turth if the departed repented of their sin and turned to Jesus for salvation. Even though their is a comfort in knoiwng a loved one went to Heaven, it does not take the sting  of sorrow away of lonely days and nights filled with greif. Many a pillow has been soaked with the tears from grieving people. Many more live day in and day out with a hole in their heart. 


Nothing I can write or say will change any of that. So I turn to one going through greif to minister to you. God may have yours in Heaven, but you still treasure them in your heart. I would like to point you to a passage that has comforted many people through the ages. I pray it will do the same for you today.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (ESV)
¹³
 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
¹⁴  For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
¹⁵  For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
¹⁶  For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
¹⁷  Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
¹⁸  Therefore encourage one another with these words.