Death, I feel Your Sting

This week I lead worship at a friend’s funeral. She was 23. As I drove to the service I found myself saying, “I wish this wasn’t happening.”

As Christians, we know that death has been defeated. We recognize that Paul writes again and again that death holds no more power. I found myself thinking something that I’ve thought a time or two before when faced with the death of a loved one: I feel death’s sting.

“O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory?”
- 1 Corinthians 15:55

In this present moment in time, we find ourselves living in the “already and not yet.” Jesus has already conquered the grave but we we, on this side of eternity, do not yet experience the fullness of His victory.

Our original design was to live in the garden, in perfect communion with our Maker, never knowing death. Death was never meant to be part of the equation. I think that’s why so many cultures create elaborate rituals and traditions around saying goodbye to deceased loved ones- we’re not really sure what to do with it. One moment, someone we love is right in front of us; we see the light in their eyes, the warmth in their skin, and they’re present with you in what you’re experiencing and then, often rather suddenly, they’re gone. Even if we’re able to see their body at a funeral viewing, it can feel so completely foreign that the person we loved isn’t there; their body, the body we knew them to be, really wasn’t the essence of the person. Nothing brings the reality that we are, as C.S. Lewis once said, “not a body with a soul but a soul with a body” as much as this experience.

We look at pictures or videos of our loved one and feel something in us saying, “I’d give anything for just one more_______.” We know that it would never be enough because deep in our souls, we know that we were not created for temporary. The “one more____” that we desire is an indicator that we are eternal beings who were created for eternal things: eternal relationships, eternal hope, eternal love and joy, eternal togetherness. Our flesh and our soul collide when what we thought was forever is torn from our lives resulting in the physical pain often experienced in moments of heartache and loss.

“He has put eternity into man's heart.” - Ecclesiastes 3:11

There is coming a day when that pain will forever be gone; a day when the ‘not yet’ will fade away and we will step fully into the victory of Christ and no longer feel the sting of death. On that day, the idea of ‘temporary’ will be obliterated and only the eternal will stand.

Thank You, Jesus.

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
- Revelation 21:4

I am confident that though I feel the sting of death in the loss of my sweet friend she does not. She’s free from the struggles of this life and filled with a greater joy and peace than anyone on this side of eternity could ever comprehend.

In loving memory of Cady Thompson.
Hug Jesus for me, sweet friend. 🤍