Hope
I Corinthians 15: 16-19 (New Living Translation)
16 And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised.
17 And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins.
18 In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost!
19 And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.
We lost a beloved pet this month, our little dog Buddy, and we were reminded of the poem known as “The Rainbow Bridge.” The poem comforts us with the thought that when a pet dies, its life does not just end, but there is hope that the pet’s soul goes to a special place where they will not know pain, hunger or want, but will play in the sun until you also pass the vale and join them again. Now I know there is a lot of debate about whether or not animals have immortal souls. Frankly, I don’t know. What I do know are these two facts: one, we serve a loving God Who values life and love, and two, after looking into the eyes of my beloved little Buddy it would be impossible for me to say that animals have no souls. I’m not here to sell you the idea, though. If you don’t believe it, fine, just let me live with my belief and I’ll let you live with yours.
So the poem ends with the pet hearing or sensing you approaching and they run to leap into your arms and together you cross the Rainbow Bridge into heaven together never to be separated again.
I really don’t know where the legend of the Rainbow Bridge comes from, but it obviously has roots in the Judeo-Christian teaching from the Bible about eternal life and eternity in heaven never to be separated from God or our other loved ones who join us there. And I really hope you believe that, because without that hope life would not be worth going on.
I do have that hope and I do have that belief. I know my mother, my grandmother, and so many more loved ones will be there. I know friends from many churches I’ve been to will be there. And I know my infant daughter, who died before reaching the age of reason, will be there. I know I will spend eternity with them all and will spend eternity with my Lord and Savior. I know I will live surrounded by God’s love.
Can I prove any of this? No. But I know it by faith and by the Word of God. I know it by my relationship with God and coming to learn His love and desire to see us live an abundant life. I know instinctively because I see renewal and restoration in the world around me every year and by that example I know there is going to renewal and restoration for us when we die. As I once heard a preacher say, if God only made us to live this one, short life He’s awfully cruel.
There are those belief systems if you lean towards that way of thinking. One teaches that when you die, zap! You’re gone! The annihilation of the soul; you die and you’re outta here. One teaches that you work to achieve the state of nothingness. If you work really hard, you get to zero? Or one that teaches you get to come back and try again. Re-incarnation doesn’t appeal to me – it looks too much like a hamster on a wheel running fast but going over the same ground again and again.
So what do you believe? Do you hope for that eternal home? What purpose does a Christian have if not to share that hope with an unsaved world? If we had no hope, what message would we bring to the world: God loves you and then you die?
I serve a God of renewal. I serve a God with purpose. I serve a God of love. I serve a God Who offers Life and Hope. Every day I receive the benefit of those mighty twins of God, Grace and Mercy. Every day He offers me a renewal and a second chance. And when I die, He will bestow of me yet another amazing gift, the gift of eternal life. I don’t know about mansions and streets of gold, but I know my Savior lives and is coming again to take me to be with Him. And that belief brings me a lot of comfort.
Stephen Cram July 17, 2011 Colossians 2:8
Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. Colossians 2:8
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