This has been a hard week. Two of my friends had people they were close to die tragically this week. While I did not know the people that died, I grieved with my friends. I felt their loss.

Death is never welcome, especially when the people are young like both of these people were. Every time I see death it makes me more determined to overcome the reason for death – sin. If mankind had never sinned death would never have come. Death was never God’s plan. It was a consequence of our decisions.

When someone dies, young or old, it represents a loss. There is no way around it. Why do we grieve when a person dies? Because they weren’t suppose to die. Ever. It was God’s will for Adam and Eve to live together with all of their children and grandchildren forever. No death. Perfect fellowship forever.

When death occurs there is a loss of fellowship. That is what hurts so much. We want to be with that person and we can’t. There is a loss of what was and what could have been.

Every time death strikes I am reminded that God grieves with us. He likes death less than we do. It cost Him fellowship with His Son for a time. Think about it. God lost fellowship with His own Son because of our decisions.

As a Pastor I am often asked, “is it God’s will when young people die?” I was faced with this question when my wife got pregnant with our first child. We had been trying to have children for 8 years. When our girl in her womb died at 8 months I got my answer. 8 months is about as young as one can get. I realized that the answer to the question is no. It is never God’s will for anyone to die, young or old.

Every time death strikes I do not grow bitter at God. Instead, I become more resolved to overcome sin and the power of it in my life. Yes, I know that I will die someday, we all do. But death makes me more determined to bring the power of the Holy Spirit that is in me to bear on myself and those around me to reduce the deadliness of sin.

Ecclesiastes 3:4a ” time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn …”