My Connection
This week four people within my community died. A relative, a classmate, a co-worker, and a neighbor died of non-COVID illness. Three of the four individuals failed to reach the promised years of three scores and ten. During the bereavement services, I am confident that the officiator will read John 14 for condolences to the families. Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you…
We tend to link a death to an unnatural and known cause during a pandemic. Still, severe illness such as a stroke, cancer, or even aging is not disturbing but rather expected, as death is inevitable for everyone. After revisiting John 14 this morning for my comfort, two verses caught my attention:
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also
20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
If Jesus personified life when he said, "I am the resurrection and the life," then death is also a personification that only exists in this time and on this planet. Since Jesus’ comforting words to His disciples centered on two actions: 1) His preparation beyond the hands of death, and 2) their recognition of the unity between Father and Son. Consequently, I interpret these two verses as follows:
Death affects believers differently than nonbelievers. If a nonbeliever dies, he or she is separated from God in totality, so only in life can he or she connect with God. Nevertheless, the believer who dies will transition from one existence to another. Through this transition, the believer will connect with His creator because the connection originated on Earth through the connection with Jesus. In other words, if you fail to recognize and give relevance and glory to God the Son, how will the Son abide in you. If God does not reside within you currently, how will you be able to connect with Him on that day? Knowing this connection isn't the same as experiencing it.
So today, I am reminding myself that it is time to take my life seriously and recognize that all my possessions are meaningless if I am disconnected from the Son and have no relationship with Him.
Knowing this connection is not the same as experiencing it.