NOT WITHOUT HOPE

It’s been a week and one day since our dog died.

Rico has been a trusty companion to the Othmans. I still recall how feeble and frail he was as a puppy. So charming and gleeful he was, that I fell in love with him.

      He was poisoned. We didn’t know who it was or where. He survived two days, with every breath a painful one. I imagined how his innards collapsed bit by bit as every morsel of his frame trembled. Then he gave up, gradually slipping away from this life.

       And I thought, we’re not so different after all. Death reminds us of our fallibility; that this life with all its seeming grandeur is temporary. It reminds us that the life we so desperately hold unto is ephemeral.

But that’s not all.

I was reminded that I am not without hope; that this is not all there is in life. Every believer in Christ looks forward with earnest expectation for the place of rest-heaven. Death, for us, is not the end of life; it’s the transport to a glorious life with Christ. As C.S Lewis aptly states, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world”.

        All the mess, the chaos that incessantly disturbs our existence, points to something grand. Our future is secured by an Anchor that keeps our soul from destruction. And somewhere within our frame is the innate desire for something more, something not from around here. We must fix our eyes beyond the walls of this temporary place. Here goes 1 Corinthians 15:19: “If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we’re a pretty sorry lot. But the truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in the long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries”. (MSG)

Death is inevitable, but so is the hope we have in the life after now. Encourage others with these things.