II Peter 1:14 13 Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle [tent], to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; 14 Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle [tent], even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.

Recently, my mother died in the Critical Care Unit of our local hospital while tenaciously struggling to hold on to life for her last several weeks.  While I prayed and read the Bible to her, she suffered what seemed a massive stoke that shook her body like a fragile tent in a violent storm.  A few seconds later, her body relaxed in peace as the raging storm passed.  It was as if someone had removed the main stay of a tent and it slowly billowed to the ground, empty of its former occupants.  A few minutes later the medical staff removed all the tubes and wires that seemed to tether my mother to her earthly existence.  Her life here on earth was over.  It was time to untether the cords that bound her and fold up the collapsed tent, never to be occupied again.  Her soul was now free from the grip of this world's storms of pain and suffering and grief, unbound by the cords of this life to enter peacefully into the next.  Such was the end and beginning of her life.

I realized that like the Apostle Peter, this life is only a "tent" that must inevitably be untethered from the earth and put off like our day clothes when the night of death comes.  Like my beloved mother, we who have Christ still have hope for eternal life where the storms of life can no longer molest and shake our earthly tent.

I Thessalonians 4:13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

In this we shall find our comfort.  Thank God for His indescribable gift of our mothers and His comfort and hope.

Matthew 5:4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

by Pastor John

 Matthew 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

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