As in Adam all die, so in
Christ all will be made alive.
—1 Corinthians 15:22
I have just returned to my desk from attending the funeral of a good man. Awaiting me was an email from a friend, written from the bedside of her mother, who isn’t expected to live through the night. Both families are experiencing contrasting emotions of anguish and victory.
We’re never ready to say “goodbye” to those we love. But Jesus declared that the end is not the end, telling a grieving sister in a cemetery, “Your brother will rise again” (Jn 11:23).
“The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable” (1 Cor 15:42). “When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory’” (1 Cor 15:54).
“The End” here is the prelude to
“Never-Ending” there.