In this week’s Union Gospel Press Sunday School lesson, we studied the resurrection of Lazarus. This biblical account carries a certain degree of intrigue and mystery. Death is a subject that makes most people feel uncomfortable and awkward. Perhaps, this is attributed to the many unanswered questions surrounding what occurs after death.
Today, I would like to hopefully simplify your thinking on death. I will attempt to do so by equating our concerns about death with punctuation marks. I imagine some of you are thinking, “Really”? How do you plan to do that?
While studying this week’s lesson, the following statement seemed to leap from the page. It said, “Death to believers in Christ is not a period, but a comma.” (Union Gospel Press, Adult Bible Class, Winter Quarter- December 2020-February 2021, page 54) Wow, what an interesting and powerful analogy! For those in Christ, we have the blessed promise of eternal life with Jesus. We simply transition to eternal life after completing our earthly life. Death for the believer is not final; like a period denotes but is simply a transition; like what comes after the comma.
However, to truly have peace about this biblical promise, I must introduce another punctuation mark or symbol. That symbol is the dash. If you take note of a tombstone or grave marker, you will most likely notice the name of the deceased as well as the person’s date of birth and the date of death. What is more important than these dates is the dash between them. This represents what the person did with their life for whatever time they were given on earth.
The most important thing we can do with our life is to surrender it to the will of God and accept Jesus as our Savior. When those steps are included in the dash of our life’s history, then there is no need to fear what happens once we end our life on earth.
I pray that if you have not accepted Jesus as your Savior, that you will do so today. By doing so, the completion of your earthly journey will transition with a comma and not end with a period.
By His grace,
Angela
