Death has been swallowed up in victory

Dear Champions,

This short excerpt is from my heart, and the Scripture is 1 Corinthians 15:54-57 . . . "Death has been swallowed up in victory." "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Saturday, October 18 I had the telephone call that you never want to hear. “Come home now because your father is dying.” The emotions and adrenalin started flowing, and I couldn’t even think straight enough to pack. I was shocked and unprepared for the news.

I spent Saturday afternoon through Monday mainly at my father’s side, and I was able to share often through tears everything that I needed to say. I shared how much that I loved him and how proud that I was that he was my father. He could not talk back, but the Hospice nurses said that he could hear me and that he could feel my touch.

On Monday afternoon he opened his eyes wide open and was trying to talk with us before he took his last breath. I was able to once again share with him how much that we loved him, I shared some Scripture, and then I kissed him on the forehead. And then it was over.

One of the emotions that I felt was anger, but why would I be angry when my father lived to be 84 years old? Because life was not meant to be this hard or this painful. Until sin entered the world through Adam and Eve we were not supposed to experience this kind of hurt and loss.

Philippians 3:20 says that our citizenship is in heaven. In other words, we were made for another world and not this one. Jesus entered our world of pain, so that we can live in eternity without any more pain. In fact Revelations 21:4 says He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

C.S. Lewis said it best. “I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country (heaven), which I shall not find till after death . . . I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and help others to do the same.”

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining