Washington Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president

The last two weeks have been painful for our family with three good friends who lost the patriarch of their families. We have been on the phone with those that live afar and others we have safely visited locally.

It is painful to watch dear family friends go through the process of losing a loved one. It is especially painful at a time when you are unable to have a celebration of life for your loved ones as well because of the limitations on large gatherings during the virus shutdown.

It is painful to see them adjust to the new reality in their lives. No longer being able to speak to their father, no longer just being in the same room with them, no longer having their spot filled at family celebrations, no longer being able to make a quick phone call to check on them, and yes, seeing others with their loved ones still living and wishing for just one more day.

We love our families and when we get a visit from death it is something that is one of the most painful things that we face on this earth. I don’t believe the human brain was rewired after sinned entered to be able to deal with death. We were wired to live forever and that wiring just hasn’t changed. Yes, we get used to it, we understand that it happens, and we learn how to move on. But it just isn’t natural.

There is, however, something that is much more powerful than death. That is the supercharged love of God.

In the wonderful little book Steps to Christ is this phrase: “The heart of God yearns over His earthly children with a love that is stronger than death,” (page 21, emphasis added).

Isn’t that a great sentence? That super charged love of God for this tiny part of His universe drove Him to face His own death and as a result human death only needs to be temporary! In all three deaths mentioned above, those three men died knowing Jesus. They died knowing that there is a super charged love that is stronger than the temporary death of this world.

Right now our world is facing the news and reality of a pandemic. This is added to all the other things in the world invented by the evil one that causes pain and death. Yet we have a God that said I love you more than death itself. He gave His son (John 3:16).

We can be witnesses to this great love by how we live our lives. We can be witnesses of this supercharged love by how we face death itself.

We can be sharing this great news of God’s amazing grace and love to a world that is searching right now for some meaning as they face illness, uncertainty, pain, isolation, and yes, even death. Let’s share the good news of God’s love that is stronger than death.