we live to die, but die to live forever

Last weekend, my grandfather past away. Whenever someone in your family passes away, there is always a degree of sadness acompanied along with it. I guess the thing that really got to me was the pride he had in me. A family member from the other side of my family came up to me to tell me this. "One of the last times I saw your grandfather, he had just gotten a picture of you from when you first started college. He was so proud of you." It's a sad thing to lose a grandparent, but death reminds us of one thing. From all earthly life comes death, but from earthly death comes eternal life. Where we spend that eternity is the kicker.

A friend sent me a small note in the mail. On the note, she left me three bible verses to remember.

I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes-I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!

Job 19:25-27

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

John 11:25-26

For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.

Romans 14:7-9