remembrance of future hope

He will swallow up death forever;

and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces,

and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,

for the LORD has spoken.

Isaiah 25:18

The promise of the prophecy of a perfect future of comfort and peace is very personally felt. All of us have lost at least one person we love in death. It could be a grandparent, a parent, a spouse, a child, or a close friend. Whenever death takes away a love, it leaves behind a unique and powerful pain like nothing else we feel. Grief always sees the chasm left behind by missing love. Fear makes us shudder with the realization that one day we too will be torn from those who love us by death’s relentless assault. But… God will eventually swallow up death forever. It will be eclipsed by eternal life. Jesus has made the way for death to be no more. We will experience a new heavens and a new earth. That is a kind of existence only God can make. By faith, with hope, we look to that day.

Tears of grief will one day be no more. I find that to be the sweetest promise… God tenderly wiping away my deeply shed tears. There is not a day I don’t cry at least a little… broken by the way death has stolen love and joy from me. Yet there is ALWAYS a comfort among the tears… always… without fail! I know whom I have lost is truly not lost. Heaven holds whom I miss. Jesus confidently is the hope of being together again! I can go on in this life knowing my tears will one day be wiped clear and death will forever be an ancient history… eternity is what lasts! Eternal life energizes me at the remembrance of future hope.

Lord,

I will trust that the reproach of loss is taken away by Jesus. I may miss the life that death has stolen, but I also know You have defeated death. You have already begun new life by Your resurrection from the dead. You have seen and You comfort all sorrows. I will hold then to the peace that You have spoken!

Amen