I travel a lot for my job and regularly spend time in airports. As I wait for my flight I see many other people leave on other flights. I have taken friends and family to the airport to see them off. There was no sense of loss when they left the gate for their destination because I knew I would see that person again.
We need God’s perspective on this. When someone dies, even from sickness, they simply go to a new destination. In that new destination they receive a new body, live in a perfect environment and get to meet and talk with those that went before them. Of course, they get to meet their heavenly Father and His Son Jesus.
On my work travel, I regularly meet coworkers at the destination. They travel from a different city than me and we meet at the location we need to work at. If my coworker gets there before me, she has to wait until I get there so we can drive to the office together. While there might be a slight inconvenience while she waits for me, we don’t talk about it the rest of the trip. Years from now, we won’t be discussing the 60 minute difference between when she arrived and I arrived.
For the people who have died and gone to heaven before us, it will seem like a few minute wait by the time we get there. Even if we live another 50 years, it will seem like minutes to those who have gone before us. In the perspective of eternity, we will never even think about the time difference of when one person arrived in heaven from another. It will be so miniscule that it won’t matter. If you and your best friend planned a car trip from New York to California, would it matter that your friend beat you to the end of the driveway as he walked to get the paper before getting in the car with you for the rest of the trip?
On October 24th last year, my wife, Heather Mishelle, went to heaven. She and I created this site to be an encouragement to others and she was the major contributor to the content. Over the past 9 months, I have gone through every emotion normal to the surviving spouse. I loved Mishelle. She was my best friend. It would be easy to be depressed, angry and sad even 9 months later. But I’m not. She is in heaven healed, standing stronger than ever and waiting for all of us.
Don’t allow death or the thought of death to scare you. Jesus took the fear and pain of death away. God loves you. Dying means going to God’s home, and it’s a wonderful place!
If you have a spouse battling a terminal sickness or have already had one leave you through death, meditate on God’s perspective. Death is simply walking through a door to another place. This is now my testimony, not just something I read in a book. As Mishelle used end her posts: be encouraged!