When We All Get to Heaven by Beckie Hudson
A few months ago, I mailed four sympathy cards. FOUR. ey ranged from saintly pastors to saints struggling with alcoholism. ere’s been a lot of death surrounding a lot of people lately and not just because we’re adrift in a pandemic. Life and death are ongoing. It just feels like the world as a whole is overshadowed by this reality in a different way for the past eighteen months. e shock, the overwhelming grief of loss can rock your very foundation—no matter where your feet are planted. After pondering all the ways grief and mourning have impacted my life personally, I see two main ways that people can view a person’s passing. Keeping in mind that each person’s journey through grief is very unique to that individual, these views can help us recognize the emotions along that path. Hebrews 9:27 & 28 tells us “Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacri ced once to take away the sins of many;
and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.” It’s a bad news/good news kind of verse. Everyone will face death, but because of the sacri cial death of Christ we have hope! One of the sympathy cards I sent was to a sweet friend who had lost her 100-year-old grandmother, a true saint. It was a little easier to mail that envelope; I had walked through the same season 12 years ago when my own precious 100-year-old grandmother got promoted to glory. e tears coursed down my cheeks as I kissed her good-bye and told her it was okay to go to Jesus. My heart was broken, but healing of that hurt began immediately as I imagined her stepping strongly into the Father’s presence to hear “well done, good and faithful servant” and the certainty that I will see her again one day. Some are immediately comforted by this hope and the knowledge that their loved one has entered eternity with the Sav-