13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 1 Thessalonians 4:13

As many of you know and as I wrote last month, my father in law passed away. A death in the family get you thinking about life, family, what’s important, the after life, priorities.

I’ve seen many Christians hold Celebration of Life memorial services for the deceased, and they are wonderful to behold. For those who of us accustomed to standard memorial services, it can be a shock. While our small memorial service for Larry wasn’t a trumpets blasting, Glory Hallelujah Celebration of Life, it wasn’t a dirge either.

I am reminded of D.L. Moody who said, “When you hear that Dwight L. Moody is dead, don’t you believe a word of it for at that time I will be more alive than I’ve ever been.”

What is the source of that mindset and those celebrations?

Hope.

They have the hope that one day “we will meet the Lord in the air, and so we will be with the Lord forever.”

We live in strange times.

Some are deathly afraid of the Covid-19 and many others are on the other side of the spectrum, mocking the leaders who foisted this crisis on the masses. Don’t get me wrong, the virus is dangerous, though not as dangerous as the media has overhyped. The point I’m getting to here is hope. I don’t think I’ve ever been concerned one iota about catching the virus, even though I’ve been around people who’ve had it and many others who have been exposed to it. I am probably too cavalier about it but I have hope. If I get it and passed away – according to the statistics and my demographics, an extremely unlikely event – then I know where I’m going.

But I see the other side of the issue too and the extreme measures people take to avoid it are just odd. Do these people not have hope? Perhaps not. Are they overthinking it? Perhaps so.

But the main takeaway here is hope.

We have hope that the world knows nothing about. It is this hope that compels us to live a godly life in Christ, for we all know that we are merely passing through this world.