My grandpa died today. In this whole short but painful process it is like I never realized people die. Of course I see death and hate it but most of the time it is the tragic kind. The kind of death where it is okay to say "This should not have happened." But now I am looking at the end of life kind of dying. The kind where you say, "They lived a good, long life." The kind that is just supposed to be a part of life...a passing from this place. And instead of feeling at peace, I feel robbed. This can't be the plan. Surely there was going to be an exception this time.
But death comes to all of us. There is only that sure thing to life.
So why do I feel robbed? It could be deep selfishness...OR it could be the original Imago Dei in me, reaching out for what really should have been. We were not created to die. We were created to live. Death is the cold reminder of sin's dark stain upon creation. That voice within me saying it should not be so is my eternal self, groaning for things to be made right again..to be garden-like again.
My grandpa is experiencing this full renewal today. He is basking in the restorative light of God's presence and he is whole. He is whole in ways that he once was on this earth; he is whole in ways he never was. He is free from all of the trappings of sinful flesh that we seek to nullify on this side.
Death did not win today. Christ Jesus did. That same Jesus who has set my sweet grandpa's spirit inside a new body today is the one who will strengthen me until I am in the same place.
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