Thought for the week - Life and Death (From Cotswold Journal)

Thought for the week - Life and Death

9:30am Thursday 26th April 2012 in S-U

OVER the last few weeks I have had the privilege, albeit a sad one, of being involved with two large funerals. One was for a 50- year-old man, the other was for a 34-year-old. Both deaths came as a huge shock. Both sets of family and friends were inevitably devastated. It has been a salutary reminder of the frailty of life, of how we never know what tomorrow will bring, or how long we each have left.

But it has also brought home to me again how important the Christian message is. We will all die one day, and we all want to find some sort of answer to death. And the wonderful message of Easter is that there can be hope, there can be assurance about that future. Because Christ died and was raised, the Bible tells us one day we can all be raised, if we trust in Him.

“Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep”, wrote the Apostle Paul to a young church in Corinth.

Of course, nothing can remove the pain and sadness of parting, of being apart from ones we love.

But the hope that one day we will be able to see them again is surely a hope worth celebrating and passing on.

As Paul says elsewhere, to the church at Thessalonica, “Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.”

Yes, we grieve, but it need not be a hopeless grief.

Many people live without that hope, instead with at best a sort of vague wistfulness. But the resurrection of Jesus Christ shows us that we can be sure, that we can have a certain hope, that we need no longer fear what the future brings. All that is required is that we turn to Christ, and place our trust in Him.

REV STEPHEN WOOKEY, St David’s Church, Moreton