As I watched the end of a marriage yesterday it was not in a courtroom being dissolved by a judge but death. This loving couple faced the greatest enemy to marriage as they had faced years of struggles--together hand in hand. In the midst of dying there was compassion, care, concern and love. They built their love like they built their home--piece by piece and without debt. Each new window they replaced sealed the home from the cold yet it warmed their hearts as an accomplishment shared. Each new nail hammered into place was another anchor as two worked and became one flesh. Their joint faith became the picture which years later would have their daughter to become a lay-minister. And as the hour approached, the three of them shared one last bed together, arm in arm, united by their love.
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Hebrews 2:14-15
Man fears death but it was the Love of God made flesh which defeats this fear. Anyone who does not know the Lord is in a prison of their own making. Death is the warden which anchors man. He struggles against its oncoming and the cosmetic industry rakes in billions of dollars from those seeking to hide the onset of aging.
Though they now be apart for a short season, by faith they can say:
“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
