When Mourning Will Turn To Rejoicing
Remembering our loved ones and their saving faith in Christ
The day after Christmas 2024 would have been my sister Debbie’s 60th birthday. The Lord saw fit to take her seven years ago. The cause of death was heart disease, and we buried her in the beautiful red sand of Westpark Cemetery in Johannesburg, South Africa. She would have loved that sand; she was an artist and noticed beauty in everything around her. She passed before her children got married or her grandchildren were born.
She had joined me in planning things we would create for Ad Crucem, but by the time we started the business, she was too sick to be involved. She encouraged me from the sidelines but was no longer able to create anything.
I dream of her often, and I enjoy those dreams: the imaginings of one’s subconscious with the ones we love but can no longer see. I also feel closest to her at the communion rail when I contemplate the communion of all saints celebrating Christ’s victory over sin, death, and the devil.
Debbie was baptized a few years before she died. Christ washed her clean in the waters of her baptism and took all her sins upon Himself. She was still a baby Christian, but her faith was growing each day, even as her body was becoming weaker. My last communication with her was a text message the day before she left us. It was this little song:
Jesus loves me, this I know
For the Bible tells me so
Little ones to Him belong
They are weak, but He is strong
Her response was “Thanks my angel xxx”. The next day, she was gone, having passed away in her sleep. I know that our Lord welcomed her into His heaven and that her pain and suffering and the deep longings of her heart were over for all eternity. She prayed that her loved ones come to know their Lord as she had. That is my prayer, too.
The remarkable thing about Christianity is the depth of forgiveness we receive in Christ. It says in Isaiah 1, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they will be made as white as snow.” It does not matter what terrible things we have said, done, or thought; Jesus has taken each of our sins (even the ones we aren’t aware of!) upon Himself.
He came to earth specifically to pay for the whole world's sins – even the people who reject and despise him. For those Jesus brings to faith in Him, all the work has been done. There is no requirement to earn his love and salvation. All that’s left for us is to trust in what He has done for us.
This might seem weird for someone who has not been raised Christian. Why do we need forgiveness? Why would God provide the means of forgiveness if we are sinners?
That is answered in the New Testament Book of Romans, especially chapters 1-3. Each of us is born in a sinful condition, and that sin is passed from father to child as the first inheritance. This was the reason a virgin gave birth to Jesus – so that He would not inherit the sin which originated with Adam and passed through each son and father. As we grow, we add our sins to those inherited from our forefathers. Indeed, scripture tells us, “The heart of man is desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). Again, Jesus was the only Person in the history of the world who was entirely sinless, this was necessary because the crucifixion was the perfect sacrifice once and for all, for all mankind. It atoned for our sins and propitiated God’s wrath.
The Old Testament exists so that we can look forward to and understand what Christ accomplished for us in the New Testament. There are approximately 4000 years between the creation of Adam and Eve and the birth of Christ, and there are hundreds of prophesies, shadows, and types of Jesus throughout the Old Testament (OT).
They detail why sacrifice for sins was necessary, which genetic line of King David He would come from, where and when He would be born, the place His ministry would start, the names He would be called, the parables He would teach in, the types of miracles He would perform, His rejection by the leaders of the day, His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.
No other holy book comes anywhere close to these fulfilled promises. The more one studies the OT, the more one finds Christ on every page. Jesus told the Jewish leaders of His day, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about Me” (John 5:39).
Armed with this comforting knowledge, we boldly trust Scripture's promises for our future: Jesus will eventually return to earth in the fullness of time and to fulfill the final prophecies about him. Every single human that has walked this earth will be raised from their resting places to be reunited with the very bodies they had – some will receive the reward of eternal life because they were granted faith to believe in Christ’s promises to us. In contrast, others will be condemned to everlasting torment because they have despised Him.
My beautiful sister Debbie will be whole again, and I will see her with my own eyes. She will rise from that grave in Johannesburg’s red earth and join all the Saints to celebrate in the new heavens and new earth, which will follow the final destruction of the present world. We will forever worship our Lord, Who paid the highest price to redeem us from our sins.
If you are reading this, it is not too late. Jeffrey Dahmer committed some of the vilest crimes ever imagined, yet he became a Christian and was baptized six months before his murder in prison. I remember watching a documentary about how a victim’s family had been praying for him. That is an example of the forgiveness only Christ can instill in a human heart. The angels in heaven and that earthly family rejoiced the day Dahmer was granted salvation.
We can look to a conversion like that and know with certainty that the Lord wants us to come to know Him and that He took the punishment for our sins upon Himself so that we – you and I – might live with Him in eternity forever. Turn to Christ. He calls to you in Matthew 11:28, “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Find a pastor who knows what he’s doing (of course, I can recommend a good Lutheran pastor in your area) and speak to him about finding the peace of Christ and rest for your soul. May God call you and bless you.