Livin Lively

By Peggy Lively

          A member of our extended Lively family died unexpectedly and suddenly in her sleep last week and yesterday we went to the funeral. The pastor read a verse during the service that stuck with me as we left to return home. It was Psalm 116:15, “The Lord cares deeply when his loved ones die.” (NLT) Another version says, “How painful it is to the Lord when one of his people dies!”  

          I had been thinking about this idea of God being sad or grieving when His children die because I had just been to another funeral a week earlier. It was the death of a friend’s father who had been killed in an accident. At his memorial service, our pastor said that he believes God is sad about the death of His children, and that He grieves with us when they die. In addition to these funerals, I had also talked with a friend last week who lost her 33 year old son-in-law in a tragic accident about 5 years ago. She said the same thing. She said, “I have to believe that God is really sad about his death too.” I never really thought about God being sad when His loved ones die because it is then that He finally gets to be with them. Yet death is a result of sin, and was never a part of God’s original plan. Therefore, I think He must grieve at the death of a teenager in a car wreck, a child in a hunting accident, a young mom to cancer, or a father to a heart attack.

          “Jesus wept” (John 11:35) when his friend Lazarus died even though He knew He was going to raise him from the dead. Again, death was not part of God’s perfect design; it is the result of sin, and that’s why He sent Jesus to defeat it on the cross. Death grieves His heart, and He grieves and hurts with His children when they lose someone they love. I believe He “weeps with those who weep.” (Romans 12:15)

          So if you are spending this Thanksgiving and holiday season without a loved one this year, remember that God grieves with you and that He is with you to comfort you. Then encourage someone else with these words. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” (II Corinthians 1:3-4)

Have a very blessed Thanksgiving