Week Three: O Death, Where Is Your Sting?
I remember going to a worship service a few weeks after Phebe’s death and being upset when they sang the words, “O death, where is your sting…” On the inside I yelled, “Death stings! It hurts!” and simultaneously, I determined that those words were a lie.
I began to cry, and I told the Lord, “It hurts because I never had the chance to get to know her!” Then, a gentle voice whispered, “You know Me.” More tears began to fall from my eyes then I focused on the next line of the song, “Cause I’ll be there singing/ Holy Holy Holy/Is the Lord…”
Then I saw a vision of my sweet girl, dressed in white worshipping the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings with everything within her. She was singing “Holy Holy Holy is the Lord!” I realized then, that in worship I am close to her and through worship I know her because I know the One that we worship. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. She is growing up in his presence. I’m okay with that.
We shouldn’t deny the pain we feel in waiting or in grief. Jesus knows. He was called the “man of sorrows” because he bore and bears our grief. In our honesty, He can and will comfort us. But, first, we must bring it to Him.
Reflection:
- Are you honest with God regarding your true emotions? Take a moment to share your truth with Him.
- Now that you’ve shared your truth, ask God to share insight into that emotion. What is God speaking to you in the midst of your circumstances?
Scriptures for Meditation and Memorization:
1 Samuel 2:20-21 NIV
Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, “May the Lord give you children by this woman to take the place of the one she prayed for and gave to the Lord.” Then they would go home.21 And the Lord was gracious to Hannah; she gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord.
Isaiah 53:2-6 NLT
My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot,
like a root in dry ground.
There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,
nothing to attract us to him.
3 He was despised and rejected—
a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
He was despised, and we did not care.
4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
it was our sorrows[a] that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
a punishment for his own sins!
5 But he was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed.
6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him
the sins of us all.
2 Corinthians 5:8 NLT
Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord.
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