For the last few months I have come to feel a bit safe in the little cocoon world that I live in. Some areas of life have settled into a rut, and some others have not. The topics of study have been shifting slowly and overall I have just been enjoying life.

With the coming of summer, some of that has been upset. In the past three weeks, several people that I know have lost relatives. My pastor’s nephew, former neighbors, the grandmother of a friend and, just yesterday, the sister of another friend. Last week a local ten year old boy was killed by two pit bulls that belonged to his friend’s parents. Reading over this makes it sound more trivial than it is and there are several items that I am not naming.

After listening to some of my friends talk today about who they have seen die in just the last two days, there are cousins, grandparents and friends of friends who have been named. Lots of people are in need of prayer, and this is only for those who have seen death.

Some of this is to be expected. The Baby Boomers are known for their, er, increasing age and disregard (in many ways) for their health.

But the young people! And the infants! And those who have tried to watch their health!

It is so common, almost cliché, to ask how there can be a God when there is so much wrong and pain in this world. Indeed, it would be cliché if that wasn’t the cry of so many hurting hearts.

The reason is not as soft as most people would like. We live in a fallen world. Not only do our own mistakes add to these matters but so do the sins of everyone else who has ever lived. Can we really expect to live as we want and not have consequences for those choices?

We like to be independent. I like to be. And yet our lives are inextricably tied to those of everyone else. The people who have gone before us have paved the roads to where we are now. Those who live around us make decisions that we will have to face for the rest of our lives and, together, we are forging the roads that those who come after us must walk.

Before pointing fingers at our forefathers, consider what road you and I are creating. This is the road that I worry about the most. It is the only one that I have any control (at all!) over.

Isaiah 57:1 struck me the other day while I was reading it:

The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.

As long as we are in this world, we will not be able to hide from death. It surrounds us but not every death is random. There is a master purpose behind everything and the one who creates it knows the path that human history is taking.

It has been said that Jesus was born to die. In a sense, so are we all. Hebrews 9:27:

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

Even though we die, it is the life by which we are remembered. Michael Jackson also died today. I fear for where he is. Because of the lives of some of these others, I am sure that I will meet them when the final trumpet is sounded. This is the “blessed hope” of all who follow Christ. I Corinthians 15:52:

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

Even Job, whose story is one of the oldest in the Bible, knew that there would be a resurrection to eternal life or eternal death. Job 19:25-27:

For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.

It is to this – judgment and the sight of Almighty God – that the dead have passed on to. What lies ahead for us who are still alive? I’m afraid that only time will tell. May we be found faithful in all things.

I look forward to that great day when we have eternity before us. John’s Revelation 21:4:

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

One day the current order will be broken. Sin will lose its allure and we will not have to face its consequences any longer. We will not need mercy to shield us from what is to come. Until that day comes for you, take heart. There is yet work to be done and you are privileged to have it set before you. God’s grace is sufficient.