I was thirteen when Bill entered my life. He arrived at the front door for what I remember as his first official date with my sister, Tracie. You know, the date where you meet the family. Well, it wasn’t long before Bill became a regular fixture at our house, especially at dinner time. In the weeks that followed it became apparent that Bill and Tracie were head-over-heels in love, but this was not the only love Bill embraced. As a passionate believer in Jesus, Tracie shared her faith, and Bill experienced a life-changing encounter with the Lord that turned his life upside down. But in reality what happened, and what Bill would wholeheartedly concur with, God turned his life right-side up.

On March 28, as Bill breathed his last breath on earth, he breathed his first breath of heaven. Four days later as I stood with family and friends to commit his mortal body to the grave, we mourned. But we embraced the truth that the Apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Thessalonica,

“We mourn but not as those who have no hope.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13)

As I stood in front of Bill’s casket, I shared the meaning of this word “hope.” Its everyday meaning speaks of a desire we have that is mixed with uncertainty. For instance, “I hope that weather will be nice tomorrow.” Or “I hope I will make it to church on time.” But the Greek word that has been translated as “hope” in 1 Thessalonians comes from the Greek work “elipa.” Elipa speaks of a hope not mixed with uncertainty but with confidence. As believers in Jesus, we mourn but with a confident hope─an expectation that we are sure of─that when we die, one day we will live again for eternity.

Our confident hope is that the same Holy Spirit that empowered the resurrection of Jesus from death to life is the same Spirt that will resurrect us. So mixed with our tears is the confidence that one day we, too, will spend eternity like Bill in the presence of our Savior. Yes, we mourn, but with the confidence that our separation is not eternal.