If death has ever robbed you of a loved one, you know only too well the pain of loss. The finality of bereavement creates in us a sense of our ‘smallness,’ for it demonstrates our helplessness to change back from a circumstance that we didn’t desire to one with which we were comfortable. Death takes no prisoners! Without asking our permission, it wrenches from us someone that was a part of our life...a piece of our soul. Death is no respecter of persons; it deeply wounds believers as readily as those who don’t know Christ.

God knows and understands our hurt. He expects us to sorrow. He anticipated our grief and made a provision for us to triumph in it. The question is not, ‘Should it hurt?’ It should and it does! The question is, ‘How much must it hurt...how long must the hurt last...how damaging must the hurt be?’ There is a great difference between normal grief and abnormal grief. There is a great difference between legitimate sorrow and sorrow that overflows its banks destroying everything in its path.

"Therefore comfort one another with these words." (1 Thessalonians 4:18). This seems to be the only instruction that we have for handling the cruelty of death. The Thessalonians had lost relatives and friends. Paul suggests that they comfort one another, but not with just any type of comfort. He recommends the comfort of God’s Word. There are other forms of comfort: the compassion of friends, the healing nature of Time, the reliving of pleasant memories. But the greatest encouragement is truth from the heart of God.

To a church just beginning to suffer losses, Paul writes: "For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:1-8)

God’s Word comforts believers by assuring us that this life is not all that there is; while God has equipped us for Time, He has designed us for Eternity. We have a purpose on Earth, but our destiny is in Heaven. If Christ tarries, this temporary ‘tent,’ designed for a brief pilgrimage, shall certainly be ‘taken down.’ (Literal Greek rendered ‘destroyed.’) Just as surely, it will be replaced with a permanent building, designed for an everlasting habitation. This is desirable, according to verse 2. In verse 4 mortality, ‘die-ability,’ will be swallowed by life. Life will not only overcome death but put a final end to it. Verse 5 informs us that God has fashioned us for this ultimate destiny and guaranteed it by giving us His Holy Spirit. We are not only confident, says Paul in verses 6-8, but well pleased at the prospect of our earthly visit being replaced by a heavenly stay "when we all get home."

Death is an enemy, but a defeated one! It could not hold its prey, Christ, nor will it be able to hold those who are His. These are the words, the truths, and the facts that really comfort. They temper sorrow with joy at the moment of loss. They replace sorrow with joy over time. They give confidence that something infinitely better than life on Earth awaits those destined for Eternity in Heaven. We believers don’t give up our Christian loved ones when they die...we entrust them to a loving Father. They haven’t left home, but gone home, as we shall do in time.