What the Great Teacher has Taught Me Today

Until this afternoon, I have always been convinced that death must be the height of loneliness, the epitome of isolation.  The assumption has always been that, no matter who sits at your bedside, who cries to lose you, and whose lives will never be quite the same without you, no one goes with you.  It is you alone who will step on as you leave your earthly life behind.

But today, as I have prayed, pondered, and petitioned about our amazing friend, Trey Erwin, the Lord has absolutely convinced me otherwise.  Oh, how sweetly the great Teacher has taught me in the last few hours.  

You see, family would rarely choose to be absent as a loved one dies.  I am quite certain that, if it is within his power and the situation were to arise, my big brother will be by my bedside as I pass into the presence of the Lord.    Now, if our Lord is, as Proverbs 18:24 says, the "friend that sticks closer than a brother" (which He is), won't He go with us a step further than our earthly brother?  If my brother is at my deathbed, this even greater Brother is surely present as I pass from that death and into the real life that awaits on the other side.

Psalm 46:1 assures us, "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble".  If He is ever-present in our lives as we face trouble day to day, does it not stand to reason that He will surely be present with us as we face this great trouble - the final trouble that every believer faces as we exit our fallen world?

If the Holy Spirit is our Comforter, as Jesus described Him to His disciples, we certainly have to reason to assume that His comfort would end as we approach death.  On the contrary, as He always does in times of need, He likely comforts and aids more lavishly in these moments than in any others in our history.

And if the Holy Spirit indwells all believers (which He most certainly does), will He not indwell us each moment until we no longer dwell within our own flesh?  I imagine that, as our own spirit (which is who we truly are) exits our body, so does the Holy Spirit that in-dwelt us.  And it seems the most likely thing in the world that He, who has comforted and corrected us so lovingly and intimately as we have walked on this earth (which is not our home), walks us straight into the presence of our Lord, where our hearts truly belong.

Jesus experienced the ultimate death - death in utter darkness, separated entirely from the presence of God - so that we would never have to experience such a thing.  The believer in Christ can always do as Trey Erwin did today...walk with Jesus straight into the arms of Jesus - all because of Jesus.