Precious Death

One of my friends died last week. Even in her 80s, she was vivacious, as energetic as her weakening body would allow, and ferociously faithful in her trust of God. In events 30 years apart, she had lost both husband and son in missionary endeavors. Her trust never wavered. In very recent years, she had suffered significant injuries when her neck was broken in a car accident, when she was attacked by a house cat (!) and after a fall down a hill. In her pain, her trust never wavered.

Sometimes we think it is so sad when a lively and loved person dies. What does God’s Word say about that? The Psalmist tells us, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants.” Ps. 116:15.  We do not often think of death as “precious.” Maybe we should, since God does. Maybe we are short-sighted, seeing only this side of death--the deterioration of age, the end of talent or service or potential, our loss. God must see something else, for Him to call that “precious.” He tells us, knowing we will not understand the significance or the details.

There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory, it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.  I Cor 15: 40-44.

For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 Cor 5:1.

He paid for that transition. Everyone who responds to His offer gives Him joy. The change of the dying body to the forever living body is precious.

---Lynda Shenefield