Trusting Him Even in Death
Recently, as I thought on differing amounts of faith, I wondered how much faith it takes to trust someone with your life? I am not talking about riding with a dangerous driver. Would you be willing to give up your life on the promise that someone would raise you from the dead? Once you were in the ground and out of sight, what if that someone became busy or distracted and forgot his promise? Or maybe he would try but be unable to accomplish what he promised? Only recently, as I studied the Gospel of John, did I realize the tremendous trust Jesus had in His Father. But He knew his Father’s love for Him, and He knew his Father could keep His promise. After all, He was with His Father when they created the world. He knew His power! Oh, yes, the Father could and did keep His promise to raise his Son from the dead!
We, too, can trust Him both in life and in death. He promises never to leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:8, that to be absent from the body (dead) is to be present with the Lord.
The following story, from a 1913 column of the Daily Encourager, beautifully illustrates the truth of this trust. A man was to undergo open-heart surgery. He said, “The day before surgery a nurse came into my room to visit. She took hold of my hand and told me to feel it and hold it.” “Now,” she said, “during the surgery tomorrow you will be disconnected from your heart and you will be kept alive only by virtue of certain machines. When your heart is finally restored and the operation is over and you are recovering, you will eventually awaken in a special recovery room.
“You will be immobile for as long as six hours. You may be unable to move, or speak, or even to open your eyes, but you will be perfectly conscious. You will hear and you will know everything that is going on around you. During those six hours, I will be at your side and I will hold your hand, exactly as I am doing now. I will stay with you until you are fully recovered. Although you may feel absolutely helpless, when you feel my hand, you will know that I will not leave you.”
“It happened exactly as the nurse told me. I awoke and could do nothing. But I could feel the nurse’s hand in my hand for hours. And that made all the difference!”
Jesus makes all the difference! We can trust Him to keep His word - He will be with us in the darkest of times and the happiest of circumstances. He is with us whether we can see Him or not. He can be trusted in life and in death! He will never leave us!