"So shall we ever be with the Lord" (I Thess. 4:13-18). Comforting words for many of us when a loved one has passed from this world. Comforting if their hope was in Christ. Death brings sorrow to those who remain; it brings grieving because they are sorely missed. But believers don't sorrow as the world sorrows because of the hope, the confident expectation, that we live forever in the presence of God. And of this God wants us to have full assurance. He doesn't want us to be uninformed of what happens to a believer after death (v.13). When we understand the true impact of a believer's death, it brings that confident expectation; it comforts.
It also brings comfort knowing what will happen to me when I die. I have hope--not a 'hope so' kind of mentality, but a 'confident expectation,' for that is the meaning of the term hope as it is used here. I don't fear death or fear what will happen next. My confident expectation is that when I leave this body I will go to be with God. That expectation can only be based on the belief that Jesus died and rose again (v.14). And I believe that. It's a matter of faith. I will be transported from the caring arms of my family into the caring arms of my Savior, just as these three beloved ones were this week.
And so we comfort each other as loved ones depart, but we also comfort ourselves as we look toward our own farewell. "So shall we ever be with the Lord." Here and now. There and then.
And now let us consider what this glorious condition will be like when we are advanced. Oh, how sweet the prospect of the time when we shall not behold him at a distance, but see him face to face: when he...shall eternally enfold us in the bosom of his glory. How sweet to gaze on that blessed face for aye, and never have a cloud rolling between, and never have to turn one's eyes away to look on a world of weariness and woe! Blest day, when wilt thou dawn? Rise, O unsetting sun! The joys of sense may leave us as soon as they will, for this shall make glorious amends. If to die is but to enter into uninterrupted communion with Jesus, then death is indeed gain, and the black drop is swallowed up in a sea of victory. ~ C.H. Spurgeon
Painting ~ Promenade a Skagen, Peter Severin Kroyer 1851-1909
Wikimedia Commons public domain
