Ephesians 3:14-15

At the time I write this, a well-known Godly woman in our church body has gone to be with the Lord. Over the years, she touched many in our church with her genuine love for Christ and she exhibited great kindness and grace to all, always ready with a word of encouragement or uplifting scripture. Her husband is also well known to many in our church body, and he is a font of scripture, joy, and encouragement. A day-and-a-half after his wife joined the family in heaven he reported, “I have had an awesome day of worshiping the Lord. He just keeps filling my heart with reminders of His grace.”

He can worship during his time of grief because the Lord is real in his life, and because he grasps the truth in the second half of our scripture passage there is one family in Christ. The members of the church family reside in one of two places, either in heaven or on earth. When a saint dies, they have been merely relocated to their heavenly home. The familial relationship with that person has not dissolved, thus we will see our loved ones in the Lord again. As Christians, we have a blessed assurance of our eternal destiny. If you find yourself missing a loved one today, take comfort in the implications of our passage today, knowing full well that you will be united with them in the future and that you will spend an eternity praising our Lord Jesus Christ together.

Jeff Mericle