Days Of Our Life

We are getting ready for a funeral of a young man this week.  Family and friends are trying to understand the details of death, wishing things would've been different, wanting to make sense out of it, wondering what has happened to him.  Death often makes us question and even fear what occurs when we breathe our last breath.  When I was in my early twenties, I had a friend in her nineties who explained stepping into the dimension of heaven as being born again, again.  She explained there's no reason to fear the day we face death, describing the day we go to heaven to be much like the day we are born--we are made new in a new place and new day.

There's nothing like breaking free of the fear of death, trusting God in everything, including physical death.  When we break free of the fear of death, we can see each day is a gift, including the day we die.

Consider.  

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26, NIV)

In John 11, Jesus told a grieving woman, Martha, her brother had life, though he had physically died.  She had seen her brother die; however, she believed he was alive.

The thing is . . . we have the assurance of life in Christ . . . though we die physically, we remain spiritually alive.  

Put simply, our physical death is the way we pass from earth to heaven.   The force of Christ's love broke through the power of death.  So. When we accept the love of Christ, asking Him to come into our life, we are freed from the grip of the darkness of death.  I'm not saying we are free from deep sadness when someone dies; loss through death is a difficult journey in the shadow of the valley of death.  But.  We know there is life on the other side.  In the midst of sorrow,  we celebrate the days of our life, especially the day we are born, the day we receive Christ, and the day we step into heaven.  These three days sum up what my friend meant by being born again, again.

We can't stop physical death, there is a day we must face it.
With God, death is a new beginning, a time of being made new, in a new place and new day.
Celebrate the days of your life, including the day of being born again, again.

Learning to Kickstart the day celebrating the days of our life,
Kerrie

(written by Kerrie Carlisle Palmer © 2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED)