Difficult to hear...

In the beginning God created us to live...to live forever a life without suffering, without pain and without death. That was His original plan for us. An amazingly beautiful plan. But He also gave us freedom. He gave us the freedom to love Him back or to run away from Him. And we chose the latter. 


Since that day, our lives have changed from joy and happiness to pain and suffering. But we weren't made for that, so we cry and cringe when we are hurt. Still in the midst of all the suffering we have hope and we cling to that hope with all we can until...

Death...it seems the end of it all. The end of hope. That's it! The ultimate pain. It hurts so much we don't know what to do with ourselves. We don't like it, we don't deal with it well...it's unnatural. We weren't made for this.


Just a couple of days ago I heard the news that is so difficult to hear. A dear friend of mine has passed away.  Tears have flown down my face as I think of not having her in my life anymore. This coming week when I go to church she won't be there to greet me in the morning. This separation is extremely uncomfortable.


But still in this experience there is hope. Yes! Because that God who created us and gave us freedom to choose had a plan. He had a plan just in case we decided to run from His love. He knew we wouldn't like it. He knew we would be sorry about our choice. And more than that. He loved us so much that He made a way for us to love Him back again...if we so chose. 

So love, in the form of God's Son, came to earth, lived among us, like one of us, and died the death we so rightly deserved. Eternal death. And because of that, we don't have to die that death anymore. We can choose to accept His plan, His gift. And this we can only do once we recognize His amazing love for us. 


So then the death we die right now is a temporary one. The Bible calls it a sleep... and like when we sleep we don't realize the passing of time, so when we die right now we don't know that time is passing by.


My friend is just resting...as if she was sleeping...and waiting. Waiting because one day soon, oh so very soon, Her creator will call her back to life. To eternal life...

And there will be no more separation...