Starting from the beginning of the race I have been reading the bible chronologically and this week I came across Isaiah 57:1-2. It says:
“The righteous perish,
and no one takes it to heart;
the devout are taken away,
and no one understands
that the righteous are taken away
to be spared from evil.
Those who walk uprightly
enter into peace;
they find rest as they lie in death.”
I immediately knew that the Lord had given me that verse to bring me clarification. A lot of you know I have had both my grandmothers die. Both of which loved the Lord and lived their life for him everyday. So to me it was just confusing because why would He want to take two of the most beautiful and strong women I know from me? Why would He want to separate my mom and dad from each of their mothers? Why would He want to put in me in pain by taking them away?
But the truth is… it was never about me.
He took them because he wanted to release them from the pain and evil of this world. He wanted to reward them for the good they had done in this life by giving them peace and true rest in his kingdom. However, it’s impossible to understand the overwhelming joy they are experiencing when we are suffering on the other side. But someone explained it me once as “an ultimately healing.” So when people wonder why we pray for healing and don’t see it come to promise I can know and understand that the healing the Lord had for that person wasn’t earthly healing, it was better. It was a heavenly healing.
That verse made my perspective of my grandmothers deaths drastically different. It taught me that they were so highly valued by our heavenly Father that He wanted to bring them into His ultimate goodness sooner. He wanted to bring them into a life where there was no more cancer. No more fear. No more treatments or doctors appointments. No more pain. No more suffering. I am so thankful that he took those things away from them and gave them rest they deserved because even though I wanted more time with them, I wanted even more for them to be rescued.
I used to be really scared to die because then its all just “over.” But it’s not. It’s a beginning. The beginning of the life we were created to live. The beginning of eternity with our heavenly Father. It’s the beginning of experiencing His goodness, His peace, His rest and His faithfulness face to face. We don’t need to be fearful of death because with death comes the beginning of the best life.
