Last night, as Takunda and I were driving through town, we witnessed what could have been a more serious accident. Thankfully the two people in the car made it out alive and weren't terribly injured.
But I left the scene of the accident feeling quite unsettled by it. It was traumatic, yes, obviously. But it felt more like a nudge from the Lord that life is temporary, it can come and go in a matter of minutes, seconds even.
Now, I don't want this to be morbid, but friends--this is reality!
We have to take it seriously but we also shouldn't be afraid of the word 'death'.
In fact, it can be such a beautiful thing (bear with me).
If you read John 11: 1-44, you'll see just that. It's slightly different because Lazarus was actually raised from the dead, but the entire experience was wonderfully divine (I'll let you go ahead and read it all for yourself, here are a couple snippets though):
"Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. Matthew 26:6–13; Mark 14:3–9; John 12:1–8) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”
21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
25 Jesus said to her,“I am the resurrection and the life.The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Jesus loved Mary, Martha and Lazarus very much and in his short 33 years here on earth he experienced the loss of loved ones. But His promise to us is that if we believe in Him- in who He is- then we will not die.
John 10:27-30 speaks about the eternal life that we get to receive from our Good Shepherd.
The world loves to fill our minds with fear as scary things are constantly being shared through social media and we go in to panic mode and almost freeze in that fear for a while. We forget that our Maker created life, for eternity.
I'm not saying that it isn't scary, because it is- we are only human. I was feeling quite shaken up last night and I wasn't even involved in the accident. But Satan definitely doesn't want us to live with our eyes fixed on God, even though his eyes are. Always playing the comparison game.
Our God is alive. He loves us. And if you trust in Him and BELIEVE in Him, you'll likely find your name neatly written in the Book of Life (Revelation 20:11-15).
"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?”
-Caryn
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