“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39). Regardless of our personal beliefs or our concepts of the placement of an All-powerful being in a rationally based universe, all of us are forced to accept the reality of physical death. Whether we’re devoutly religious or hardcore atheist or utterly indifferent, death comes for us all. We will all experience death personally at the end of our own lives, and we will also all unfortunately experience the deaths of loved ones, casual acquaintances, celebrities, or even perfect strangers. Death can have a funny effect on us. Some of the most militantly anti-afterlife folks will abandon nihilistic materialism and search high and low for even the faintest glimmer that they will one day see their loved ones again. On the other hand, some with the most unshakeable faith will find themselves questioning everything and cursing a cruel and uncaring God for robbing them of the ones they loved the most. Death necessarily brings with it grief along with a whole host of other painful and unpleasant moods and emotions, but death does not have the power to separate us from the love of God. Jesus Christ is an expert on death. He died a million billion times as He took upon Him the sins and pains and deaths of every living creature. In one of the most understated descriptions ever, Jesus is described as being “acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). When no one else in the world knows how much we loved them and how much pain we feel that we can no longer talk to them or laugh with them or hold onto them, the shock we feel as memories of them, sharp and clear and frighteningly intense, sneak up on us, Jesus Christ knows. He knows the pain we feel. He knows what it is like to love them and to miss them. Death can tear away the veil and chase away the fog and let us see clearly that Jesus is right beside us. We won’t know all of the reasons why it was necessary for our loved ones to die when they did, but we don’t need to know or understand everything to recognize that we need Christ and God’s love in our lives more in such moments of grief and tragedy than at any other time. When Christ emerged triumphant from the tomb, He broke the bands of death and took away its sting. Because of His infinite sacrifice, death is only temporary, and our grief will also be temporary. “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” (Revelations 21:4). I know that death cannot separate us from the love of God and I hope that even in our most painful moments, we will still hold onto our capacity to feel God’s love for us and to trust that it will all make sense in the end.
