Lazarus is Sleeping

“Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, so that I may awaken him out of sleep…Now Jesus had spoken of his death…Martha then said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died...” Jesus said to her “Your brother will rise again…” (John 11:1-25)

My mother-in-law Joy Juanell Estes died on Wednesday. She will be missed. Before her stroke two years ago she had always been full of life and loved living, talking with people, and teaching piano to her students for more than 50 years. She could talk to anyone and never met a stranger. She was always active and on the go. She especially loved her grandchildren. She played the piano at her church in California for over 55 years. She was loved by all who knew her. I especially admired her after she and Ernie had lost their teenage daughter Sandra in a car wreck and yet maintained her faith in and faithfulness to God. She was in the hospital or nursing home all of the two years after the last stroke unable to walk or communicate much to her family during that time. Aging and health issues are part of life and it is heartbreaking. Life is such a precious gift from God - but death is also a precious gift, especially for those like Juanell and her family who know what will follow! 

Jesus called death SLEEP. And Juanell was finally given the GIFT of sleep, and her next conscious moment will be, for her, just a mere “twinkling of the eye”, and she will awake from sleep with all of her loved ones around her in the very presence of God and her Lord Jesus Christ, all of us full of abundant, never ending immortal LIFE. 

Many of you have or are experiencing similar heartache but you learned in the experience, down deep in your heart…the sleep of death is a gracious GIFT from God for those who are suffering…and it gives you peace and comfort…

“…for I would not have you uninformed about those who are asleep, so that you do not grieve like those who have no hope…for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words… He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto me, Write, for these words are true and faithful” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 21:5)

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