April 15th, 2022

With Death Comes Life!

1 Peter 1:3 NIV

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..."

      What a blessed Good Friday it is today. While we commemorate the death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I want to express to you the goodness in all of this-and that is hope. Many see death as a sad thing, and while it is, death brings new life. I used to work at a nursing home, and in my time there, I had seen the lives of several leave this earth. It was never a good day when you had to watch a person's loved ones remaining on this earth, grieve their newly departed friend or family member. There was one thing that I often noticed, though, and that is this-when one's life ended, another's began. Almost every time one of our residents passed away, there was someone in their family expecting a baby. This also happened in our family. Just days after we found out we were expecting our firstborn, my husband lost his beloved great aunt, whom he was very close to, to cancer. While we were all devastated over the loss of his sweet Aunt Minnie, the family soon was able to rejoice and find new hope in the future to come because we were adding another sweet soul to our family.

      Similarly, there is new life found in the resurrection of Jesus. Through is death and resurrection, we have been made new and have entered into a new covenant with God. One that gives us hope and a future to see eternal life with he who died for our sins. Through his blood shed, we have been cleansed of our sins and offered the gift of salvation. Because of this, our hope lies in Jesus, not of this earth, so that we too may be resurrected one day and see the gates of Heavan open before us. This hope is much greater than any that we will ever see on this earth. It is not of anything we have done or deserved, but of the love of God who sent his son to die for us. Let us rejoice because through the death of Christ, we may be born again!

Have you, too, ever noticed that death usually brings new life with it? How does hearing/seeing this make you feel about the rebirth we see through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ?