Everything I've said about joy and life and hope and possibility still stand. I don't deny them for a minute. However, today I will not chirp with excitement because it is one of those rare times to mourn.
I also don't deny that there can still be these things in a place of grief. But they are not to be bandied about or paraded insensitively since the horrific loss of a young life to a drunk driver occurred in my close community last night.
He nearly got hit by a car that morning and told his mum he would never forget the day he almost died. They had a long conversation about heaven that day because of it, about how great it would be. Then that evening, leaving kids club, standing on the pavement in a crowd of friends, he was gone.
From carefree playing to eternity with Jesus in an instant. It's that close. There are questions we cannot answer and neither have we the right to understand.
We do know that good things will come... but right now we mourn.
1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18
13 And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died.
15 We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. 17 Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. 18 So encourage each other with these words.
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