What helps you grieve with hope?
Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 1 Thessalonians 4:13
Comforting Lord,
How kind your Word is—
you know that we will grieve when we lose loved ones,
and you don’t tell us not to grieve.
and yet, you remind us
that your return gives us every reason to hope for a brighter day
even as we grieve.
For we know that our loved ones lost to death
are now with you if they trusted in you in this life.
You told the thief on the cross,
“Today, you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).
Not only that, but you tell us that one day,
you will return from heaven,
“with a cry of command,
with the voice of an archangel,
and with the sound of the trumpet of God” (1 Thess. 4:16).
In that day, you will raise the bodies of those who died before your return (4:16).
In that day, you will raise the living,
who will oddly (to us) enough,
escort you back to earth to establish your kingdom,
the new heavens and the new earth (4:17).
On that day, we will live in the unbroken presence of eternal glory.
For this reason, we do not grieve as those who have no hope (1 Thess. 4:13).
In your name we pray. Amen.
Read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
