"Oh death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?"
I Corinthians 15:55
O death, where is your sting?"
I Corinthians 15:55
A few days after Easter last year, I received the terrible news that a good friend of mine from high school had died in a car accident in Panama. She had died on Good Friday. I realized that despite my earthly grief over the loss of Liz, the heavenly reality is ultimately beautiful: because Christ died on Good Friday in order to rise again on Easter and bring us salvation, Liz's death on Good Friday also results in an Easter of resurrection to eternal life in heaven. Christ died and rose so that our death may also lead to a resurrection.
After Easter each year, the extended family goes home, we put away the decorations, and too often the meaning of the day slips to the back of our minds along with the bygone festivities. The wonderful reality, however, is that as we live in the days after Easter, the spiritual significance of Easter is still with us - indeed, it is with us for all eternity. Christ did not die for us simply to be celebrated and then forgotten, but so that we might be made alive together with him by his grace (Ephesians 2:5). Because of what Christ did on the cross, our Easter celebration never ends. His Good Friday enables us to live in eternal resurrection to true life in Him, both on earth and in heaven. Liz's death on Good Friday, tragic though it was for those of us on earth, was in actuality the inauguration of her perpetual Easter in heaven.
After Easter each year, the extended family goes home, we put away the decorations, and too often the meaning of the day slips to the back of our minds along with the bygone festivities. The wonderful reality, however, is that as we live in the days after Easter, the spiritual significance of Easter is still with us - indeed, it is with us for all eternity. Christ did not die for us simply to be celebrated and then forgotten, but so that we might be made alive together with him by his grace (Ephesians 2:5). Because of what Christ did on the cross, our Easter celebration never ends. His Good Friday enables us to live in eternal resurrection to true life in Him, both on earth and in heaven. Liz's death on Good Friday, tragic though it was for those of us on earth, was in actuality the inauguration of her perpetual Easter in heaven.
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