A L M A C I A S

IN HOPE OF ETERNAL LIFE

What would people do if they knew that there was a way to live here forever. I believe that people being what they are would try to learn more about that way. We wish, if it were possible, that we could all live forever. But we all need to be realistic and accept the fact that we all have an appointment with death that cannot be altered, changed, or canceled. But by the same token, we find in the scriptures that there is a way by which we all can live forever. King David wrote in Psalms 17:15, "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." What did David want all of us to understand from this passage of scripture? David wanted all of us to know that some day we will all rise again; that there will be a resurrection of the dead and that death will not keep any of us captive. Not only that, but also that when we do resurrect from the dead, we will have a different body, a transformed body.

In his first letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul wrote something similar. We read in I Corinthians 15:51-52, "Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." Some day there will be a resurrection for all who have died. Therefore none of us should see death as the end, for death is only the beginning of a time that will never end. What words can we use in trying to console those who have lost a loved one? We cannot truly say, "We know how you feel" unless we have gone through the same things that this person is going through at the time. Many of us do not know how it is to lose our children to death. Many of us do not know how it really is to lose our mate to death unless we have also lost our own. However, even though we might not be able to say to those whom we so much want to console, "We know how you feel," we can tell them what God has said to all of us in the scriptures. Death is only a sleep from which all will someday wake up. If it is the case that our loved ones were faithful children of God, then we are assured by the scriptures that they are in paradise and only for a short while. When the Lord comes, the dead shall resurrect first and then all of us who are still alive shall all be caught up together with them who have been resurrected to be with the Lord forever. (I Thess. 4:13-18) Let us learn all we can from the scriptures the proper words to console those whom we so much want to console.