And when no longer we can see Thee, may we reach out our hands, and find Thee leading us through death to immortality and glory.

To the Christian death is the exchanging of a tent for a building.

Death will come in any case, and there is a long afterwards if the priests are right and nothing to fear if they are wrong.

Frederick Buechner writes, "Turn around and believe that the good news that we are loved is gooder than we ever dared hope, and that to believe in that good news, to live out of it and toward it, to be in love with that good news, is of all glad things in this world the gladdest thing of all.

Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we must be saved by love.7-22 REINHOLD NIEBUHR

Even the greatest of miracles do not resolve the problems of this earth: all people who find physical healing eventually die. We need more than miracle. We need a new heaven and a new earth, and until we have those, unfairness will not disappear.

we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." And "he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

God (Isa. 59:1—2).

God is coming to intersect us in our funeral processions

what God did for us is greater than what anyone could do against us.

Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:25—26)

God is bigger and more powerful than we can ever imagine. We may be hurt, yes, but Jesus is bigger than our wounds. Jesus is bigger than our sorrows.