GOSPEL TRUTH: “I wish I was there…”

What DOES happen after Death?

We were returning home from holiday when we noticed the wreath lying below a lamp-post at the entrance to our village. At once we knew what it meant: someone had died. Wondering if it was anyone we knew who had died while we were away, I returned to the lamp-post later to read the small card that had been placed on the grass with the wreath. The message on the card was heart-rending. It read:-

Darling Dad, I wish I was there to help you when you fell. Please watch over us all. We love and miss you. For ever in our hearts. X X X X.  

How tragic! Somebody’s Dad had fallen on the road – either struck by a passing car or having suffered a heart-attack. The family members were devastated and wanted to express their grief by placing a wreath and a message by the roadside. We can understand in some way how they felt. They loved their father and missed him tremendously. If only one of them had been there to give him comfort and ease his pain when he fell – even if his death could not have been prevented!  If only…. but it was too late.

WE MISS YOU

It has become a common practice in many countries to place a wreath (or some flowers) and a message at the roadside where someone has met an untimely death. To those who have lost loved ones, an accident site becomes almost sacred. But the message beneath the lamp-post revealed something else – something that was wrong. The one who placed it there held on to the hope that perhaps Dad’s spirit was still lingering at the place where his body fell. The message was placed in the hope that Dad (now dead) might read it and appreciate their concern for him, and that from his new realm as a spirit-being he might somehow watch over the family and do them good.

Many years ago King David lost an infant son. As he lamented the death of the baby, he expressed a profound truth. “Can I bring him back again?” he asked. “I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me,” (2 Sam.12:23, KJV). Death is a time of parting from the ones we love. We cannot communicate with the spirits of those who have died. Indeed, the Bible forbids the employment of mediums to this end, (Lev.19:31). Those who have died have left this world. Their bodies may have been placed in a grave, but their spirits live on in another life. At the moment of death a process begins which causes the body to “return to the earth as it was”; but, without a moment’s delay, “the spirit shall return unto God who gave it,” (Eccl.12:7).

ONLY TWO PLACES

There are two destinations after death – a place of bliss and a place of torment. We all deserve the place of torment because we have all sinned and broken God’s holy law, (Rom.3:23). In love to us God sent His only Son to be our Saviour, (1 Jn.4:14), and the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins upon the cross ofCalvary, (1 Cor.15:3). To experience God’s forgiveness, we must tell Him that we are truly sorry for our sins and must believe that Christ died in our place and shed His precious blood for us. Have you ever done that?

From the Bible we learn that after death those who have died recognize one another. If you have lost a loved one who was saved and you are saved too, then you can be sure that you will meet them again one day in the Saviour’s presence. This is a very comforting prospect. But if we do not ask for God’s forgiveness, we will have to pay the price for our own sins – in hell. Life is too uncertain to take risks. “Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth,” (Prov.27:1). Ask Jesus to be Saviour and Lord of your life today.