1 Thessalonians 4:13 - "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope." (ESV)
So, what does that look like? What does it look like to "not grieve as others do who have no hope"?
Here's an image.
Yesterday, our church served the funeral of a family whose eight and a half month old son died suddenly and inexplicably. Before the funeral, the adults were grieving in various ways: understandable wailing, sitting in silence, chain-smoking on the patio, and other ways. But as the adults grieved in these ways, there were two unrelated children, a boy age six and a girl age two, who lived an image I'll never forget.
Just outside the front door of our worship sanctuary, there are two flower beds with newly planted, so not deeply rooted, pansies. The six year old boy carefully picked a pansy flower from the plant and gave it to a woman. The two year old girl saw him do that and picked a flower too, but with her flower came the whole not-so-deeply-rooted plant. Many of the adults, in their grief, fussed at the little girl. The little boy, without saying a word, watched all the fussing, looked down at the flower patch, held out his hands to the girl to ask for the flower, pinched off the flower from the plant, gave the flower to the girl, stooped down and replanted the plant, including firming the soil around it. Then he wiped off his hands, looked at an older man, and calmly asked if he could view the deceased infant one more time before the funeral began. All of that from a six year old boy, calmly gardening and enjoying God's beauty in the face of death, in stark contrast to the adult smoking, wailing, silence, and fussing.
It's an image of huge hope in the God of life even while acknowledging the huge reason to grieve.
It must be another of the many reasons why Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are like children.
Dear Lord, There are so many challenges and sorrows that come at us each day. Help us, today, to be your children, for that is what we are, so that we may have hope in you in the face of our grief, comfort in the midst of our sorrows, and wisdom and calm in the face of our challenges. Grant this, O LORD, for Jesus' sake. In Jesus' name we ask this. Amen.
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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