A few days after my grandson was killed, I read a chapter in God Gave the Song* by Gloria Gaither which comforted me. She used a song written by herself and her husband to precede each chapter. The song for this chapter is “Then Came the Morning.” In the following video, it is sung by Guy Penrod: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGjfF31zB24.
Here’s a different performance including the lyrics: https://www.youtube.com/watchv=SLAwq29bXdk.
This song is written from the perspective of the disciples and Mary, the mother of Jesus. Those of us who have lost a loved one to death can probably empathize with her. The author talks about her grieving and our grieving.
Mary and the disciples must have felt hopeless that night after Jesus died — that is, unless they remembered that he had said, “The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected…and be killed, and after three days rise again,” (Mark 8:31).
I think Mary remembered. During her grief, she had
the joy of knowing that all this was in God’s plan and
her Son would rise again victoriously.
Does it help to know that your deceased loved one knows where he is going? It definitely helped me when my former husband died of cancer. He knew the power of God’s forgiveness and had accepted it.
He looked forward to Heaven once he gave up on the hope of being healed on this earth. He was at peace when he died. Because of my confidence that he went to Heaven, I could be at peace, even through my tears. Before his death, he had lost so much weight he looked almost like a skeleton. But after he died, I dreamed sometimes of seeing him whole and healthy and happy. Then I couldn’t wish him back.
We have a glorious morning to look forward to. Because Jesus arose on that first Easter morning, we too can live in eternity with him, if we believe in him.
As Jesus said to Martha before he raised her brother from death,
“I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,”
(John 11:25).
Also, he told Nicodemus,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes
in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
(John 3:16)
We can look forward to that glorious morning after death with hope because Jesus defeated death!
---Judith Vander Wege, 2021
God Gave the Song by Gloria Gaither was published by Zondervan Publishing House, 2000.)
** (pages 126-129).
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