On Wednesday, April 1, I celebrated my birthday.  On Sunday, April 12, God called Heman Elia, my colleague in the Bible school, home.  On Thursday, April 16, God called Andreas, Santy’s younger brother, home. On Wednesday, April 22, God called Tante Barbara home and on Friday, May 1, God called Vilma, my aunt in Indonesia, home. It’s true what Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 says, “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.  A time to be born, and a time to die.  A time to plant and a time to pluck what is planted.” Amen.

Those who are not of the Kingdom of God might say that it is a curse to lose so many people in a short period of time.  We who are of the Kingdom of God say that it’s a blessing to send so many of our loved one home to be with Christ Our Lord. Revelations 14:13 provides us with a clear perspective, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.  Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labor, and their work will follow them.”  Not cursed, simply blessed!

We do not know when we will come into the world, and we do not know when we will leave this world.  Nor do we know how God will take us from this world.  What we know is where we will go after we leave this world.  That is the reason we do not only see death as losing someone but also as sending someone, because literally we do send someone off.  That’s also the reason we do not dwell on the “why” someone dies.  Some deaths are harder to deal with because of the timing; to us, they are too young to go.  However, in the end, we accept the fact that someone dies in God’s time and in His hand.

So, be sad and mourn, then move on, trusting that God “has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).  We may not see the beauty of it yet but one day in retrospect from eternity, we will. So, “eat and drink and enjoy the good of our labor—it’s God’s gift.”

Pastor Paul