"The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men 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."--Isaiah 57:1-2

Death is always hard. There is nothing on this earth like death. Death has a way of bringing people closer together, or further apart. It has a way of driving families to the brink of disaster and causing people to go mad. Death is always hard.

I write this because a person I knew died yesterday. It is somewhat interesting that our speaker for "The Well" two days ago spoke on this same topic. We have been dealing with tough questions this month in "The Well" and our speaker told of his struggle with losing his father, a minister for the Lord, and how this verse from Isaiah given him by a homeless man helped him through.

Why death? Is it God's way of thinning out the human race? Is it Satan's way of trying to depress everyone to the point of giving up on God? The famous pat answers keep running through my head, and everyone seems more hollow now than ever before, except this one. Hope. Read the verse in Isaiah again at the top of this blog. Read it carefully. Did you notice it?

We who believe in a God who is coming again to take us to heaven with Him have hope. Did you notice the hope? We don't understand why these people are taken from us, these people who have walked upright with God, but we do know that they are free from evil now. Peace now covers their body as they are not tempted, not filled with grief, and Satan has lost again.

The best part is that their next waking moment will be God reaching down and saying "Rise up! Well done good and faithful servant, welcome home!"

Hope in death. Even though it is pain for the rest of us, we have hope in Christ's love and saving grace that those who have died will rise again and join us in the clouds with the Savior who will vanquish death and everything evil. Hope in death.