Uniquely Christian comfort…
Feed: Confessional Gadfly
Posted on: Wednesday, October 13, 2010 3:03 PM
Author: Rev. Eric J Brown
Subject: Always later, never never
| One of the things that we can be tempted to think when one of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ fall asleep is, "I never got to tell them ______," where the blank can have many things. Or we might think, "I was going to see them soon, and now I never will."
No. You are wrong when you think such things.
Concerning the physical death of our fellow Christians, it is not a never sort of thing. Christ has died, Christ has risen -> your beloved who has died will rise as well. Now, come that day, you may not want or need to tell them what it pains you now that you hadn't told them. Come that day, you may not wish to see them for whatever it is you wished to see them for now. But it will be better then.
I do not say this to minimize the pain we feel at a loved one's passing. It does indeed stink that things we wanted to say are not said, that we now do not see ones we love seeing.
But this separation is a temporary one, it is a transient one. Like a fog is scattered by the sun and wind, so our sorrow will be blown aside when the Son returns and bids us all rise again.
For Christians, there is always a later. This is the truth we are told by our Lord, this is the truth we confess when we gather with our beloved departed around our Lord's Altar for His Supper (for indeed... the dead in Christ are there, for they are indeed part of the company of heaven), and this is what we look forward to.
For Christians, there is always a later. 
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