=
[Pastor Wayne Muri, an old c=
lassmate of mine, wrote this encouraging thought on death for a Christian s=
hortly after his sweet wife’s passing in 2018. Used by his permission.]
Sitting with a group of friends one night, =
the question came up, “What’s it like to die?” The guy wh=
o asked the question admitted it was heavy on his mind because, as he put i=
t, “I’m afraid to die.” I happily took him to this passag=
e in the Gospel of John. After saying these things, Jesus said to His di=
sciples, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him=
=2E" The disciples said to Him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, h=
e will recover." Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought t=
hat He meant taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, "Laza=
rus has died.”
When the=
friends of Jesus die, they fall asleep. That’s how Luke put it when =
he wrote about the death of Stephen in Acts 7. And falling to his knees =
he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against th=
em." And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
The idea of death as sleep implies two things: First, fall=
ing asleep oozes gentleness. Sleep is gentle, quiet, comfortable. No one ev=
er falls asleep violently or bitterly. People drift off to sleep. Gently. Y=
ou might have a squirming, crying child in your arms, but as you rock them,=
and sing to them, and cradle them in your arms, eventually they calm down,=
they relax, their eyes droop, and they drift gently off into sleep.
If you are terrified at the thought of dying&#=
8212;you need Jesus to be your friend. Because if you’re the friend o=
f Jesus, your death, whenever it comes—next week, next year, twenty y=
ears from now, will not really be death—it will be a falling asleep. =
Second, falling asleep presupposes waki=
ng up. Dead people don’t wake up. On the other hand, the friends of J=
esus don’t die. They fall asleep, and then they wake up. My wife, who=
was a very dear friend of Jesus, fell asleep here, and woke up somewhere e=
lse, which is wonderfully encouraging to all of us left behind. It means sh=
e not forever ripped from our lives.
=
Sin=
ce sleeping means waking up, it is not a thing to be terrified of, any more=
than you should be terrified of falling asleep. And that, my friends, is w=
hat death is like for the friends of Jesus—they fall asleep.
~~
Dr Bob Griff=
in
[email protected]=
t www.grif.net
"Jesus Knows Me, This I Love!"
ree.www.avast.com