This past week has been a tough one. It is yet to get worse.
My grandfather is currently on his deathbed. The doctors have told us that he will pass away any day now.
While we knew this day would come, the sting still remains. The pain of losing someone dear to you is never meant to be easy to bear.
During times such as these, we can often think about what happens after death. Is there another life? Do we reincarnate? Is there pure and simple nothingness?
As Christians, we know that God has prepared a place for us in Heaven when we pass away from this life. We see this in Luke’s account of the crucifixion.
“39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise” (emphasis added).
Luke 23:39 – 43 ESV.
Despite knowing that when we pass away and meet Jesus in paradise, we still can often still feel pain for the loss. While we mourn for those that have passed on, we too should rejoice because, if they were a follower of Christ, we will see them again when we also, join them in heaven!
During his lifetime, Christ spoke many different parables about life and the character that God cherishes. One of these is widely regarded as “The Parable of the Weeds”:
“24 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”
Matthew 13:24 – 30 ESV.
This parable speaks of weeds that represent humanity. Both God and the devil have planted seeds in humanity. Some of us belong to God, some others to the powers of this world. Jesus tells us within this parable that both the weeds (Christians) and the weeds (not-yet-Christians) will remain living together in the field (the earth) until God’s time for the harvest arrives.
At the harvest, those that are Christians will be transported to God’s barn to be His. We will be with God forever in Paradise. However, for those that are not followers of Christ, the weeds will be gathered to be burned.
We do not know the hour that Christ will return. We do not know the hour that we will pass from this life and into the next.
One thing we can be sure of, however, is that Christ has prepared a place for us when those who are called His children pass on. We have hope because our future is secure. Praise God for his love and compassion despite our elements of failure and sin.
Do you know this hope? I urge you to seek God if you do not.
God bless!
Leave a Reply