what do i know?

my uncle is very near death. it may even be tonight. as an adult i haven't been extremely close to him. i do see him when i visit home and at holidays. but i remember him being around quite often as i was growing up. i remember trading cds with him and the pizza game he gave me and my sister for christmas one year. while i was in college he bought me a george forman grill - i think he may have been more excited about that than i was, he LOVES his steak!

with the news of his impending death i have been flooded with these memories and with the usual thoughts of death one ponders when it is thrust into their life. the strongest feeling i have is that death sucks. i can't make it sound any better because it isn't. and there is a reason for that,

for the wages of sin is death...romans 6:23a

we are sinners and we deserve nothing more than the grave and hell. what my uncle is facing we all must face because of adam's sin. and it would be just if that is where it ended. but the verse doesn't end here. what joy,

for the wages of sin is death BUT THE GIFT OF GOD IS ETERNAL LIFE THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD. romans 6:23

we deserve death and hell, but God loves us so much he sent His only Son to DIE for us. i will never get over the fact that Jesus Christ has, too, suffered death. He knows just how much it sucks. and our Heavenly Father knows the pain of watching someone you love die. Jesus didn't only suffer the agony of a physical death but He also took the punishment meant for us in Hell. He paid the price of our sin so we don't have to. the hymn it is well with my soul has a glorious verse that goes like this,

my sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin NOT IN PART BUT THE WHOLE, is nailed to the cross and i bear it no more PRAISE THE LORD it is well with my soul.

how can i ever get over this?! i simply can't. my sin has been covered by the blood. but the fact remains that we all must still suffer a physical death. it isn't meant to be pleasant but it doesn't have to fill us with fear. we will not be left in the grave. our Savior has conquered death and the grave,

o death, where is thy sting? o grave, where is thy victory? the sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 corinthians 15:55-57

i am confident that my uncle knows the Savior of his soul. i am confident that when my uncle closes his eyes in death he will open them in Glory. we will all hurt and mourn when he goes, but we, too, will rejoice knowing that he is in the presence of the King. and i am sure my sweet grandma is waiting at the gate for his arrival!

I have a friend who just turned eighty-eight
and she just shared with me that she's afraid of dying.
I sit here years from her experience
and try to bring her comfort.
I try to bring her comfort
But what do I know? What do I know?
She grew up singing about the glory land,
and she would testify how Jesus changed her life.
It was easy to have faith when she was thirty-four,
but now her friends are dying, and death is at her door.
And what do I know? What do I know?

Well,I don't know that there are harps in heaven,
Or the process for earning your wings.
I don't know of bright lights at the ends of tunnels,
Or any of these things.

She lost her husband after sixty years,
and as he slipped away she still had things to say.
Death can be so inconvenient.
You try to live and love. It comes and interrupts.
And what do I know? What do I know?

Well,I don't know that there are harps in heaven,
Or the process for earning your wings.
And I don't know of bright lights at the ends of tunnels,
Or any of these things.

But I know to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord,
and from what I know of him, that must be pretty good.
Oh, I know to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord,
and from what I know of him, that must be very good.

-what do i know, sara groves