For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
This year, we have lost 3 church members so far. All had started hospice at some point. We now have another church member who is now on hospice. Getting older is always hard on everyone. Loss is hard on everyone.
When we know someone, or even if it’s ourselves, is going to pass, we tend to want to make the most of the time left. One of our church members who has passed, we as a church made sure he was able to get to and from church each Sabbath. We made sure he had food, food he liked to eat, to take back to the nursing home with him. Filling the time that is left with care, love, and everything we can to make it a full time is special.
Even now, church members are trying to figure out what we can do to make our family member’s time special. How we can help with all his family, providing support, meals, whatever we can do. That’s what people do. We try to provide comfort and make things special.
The one thing that gets us all through is knowing, this is not the end. God promises that when Jesus returns, those who are asleep in Christ will rise first and go up to Him. That means all those who have gone to sleep will rise and be reunited together with Jesus. What a glorious time that will be! Jesus will come and take us to live eternally with peace and love. Praise God for all His promises! Especially the promise of eternity with Him!