The loss of a loved one is a reminder of our own mortality.  We don’t like to think about it, but we should.  “Since no man knows the future, who can tell him what is to come? No man has power over the wind to contain it; so no one has power over the day of his death” Ecc 8:7-8a (NIV).  Messiah defeated death, it no longer has the final word.  In Him, even now, we partake of our future life.  In Christ, life has the final word, not death.

“Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.  Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life” 2 Corinthians 5:1-4 (NIV).