O Death where is your sting?

A young lady, named Lauren, from my home town, Thomasville, was just killed in a car accident a few days ago. She was a senior at Georgia Southern and was back home for the holidays after completing her next to last semester of college. I did not know Lauren that well. She was a few years younger than me, but we did hang out every now and then in a group of mutual friends some years back. I remember the last time that we spoke with each other was at a worship service on the Georgia Southern campus in 2006. The prescence of the Lord dripped from Lauren as though she had been soaked from head to toe in it. Lauren and her friend, Toni, were incredibly encouraging to speak with because the Holy Spirit enveloped them like a sweet fragrance. You feel good about the future of the world when you come across people like that.



Well, Lauren's life on this earth is now complete. Her influence and legacy will live on through family and friends for years to come, but her life has moved on from this temporal world into the eternal. Anytime a tragedy like this happens, it begs the question "Why?" Really, it may be impossible to answer that question. But, we still seek some kind of answer or solace. As we seek out peace from the storm, may we find shelter in loving arms of a God who knows all to well what the loss of a child, a loved one, feels like. May we also find peace and strength in the fact that just as God knows the sting of death, He also knows very well the glorious victory over Death and Sin (1 Corinthians 15: 55-58). Physically we will all taste death at some point. It's inevitable. But thanks be to God that we will never feel the eternal sting and agony because we have a Savior who has taken on that punishment for us and He has defeated it. Jesus has knocked Death and Sin out, and He has called us out of the darkness into the marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).



Lauren's home now, for good. I will remember for a long time those few moments that we spent conversating together. While it is a sorrowful time because she will be missed by so many, it is truly a joyous occasion in heaven because another child of the King has come home. The greatest Christmas gift ever given, eternal life, has fully been received. Christmas extends far beyond a baby in a manger, though that is certainly important. To me, the Christmas spirit does not truly show itself until that faithful day on Calvary and the three days that followed. Without that weekend, there would be no need for the Christmas season. We celebrate the birth of Christ now, because of what He would do for all of us later on. His sacrifice is the greatest Christmas given and eternal life the most neglected Christmas gift given; worse than any hand me down sweater has ever been treated. This Christmas season, as you open your gifts from loved ones, remember the gift of the One who loved first. Cherish it. Celebrate it. Share it with others. And realize that this is really the gift that keeps on giving.