Today Sue commemorates the first anniversary of her beloved mother’s death in this life and her entry into eternal life with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Sue, her Dad and family on this first anniversary of her mother’s homecoming.

Last night I got a telephone call from my and Guss’ precious Aunt Marge, who just lost our beloved uncle last October.

She asked me if I was sitting down and I told her yes. Then she began to cry almost to the point of not being able to understand her. She told me “Something terrible has happened!”

I asked her what was wrong and she told me to wait a minute. She tried to compose herself and I asked again what was wrong. Then she sobbed, “Matthew died this afternoon at 6:30!”

Matthew is her oldest grandchild, and was only 24 years old. We don’t know yet what happened as he seemed in good spirits and good health when he got back home Sunday afternoon.

He went to his room to lie down and locked the door. Sometime later his step-father tried to awaken him and had to break the door down. That’s when he found him, lying in bed, covered with a sheet with his foot outside the sheet, looking as though he had gone to sleep and just didn’t wake up.

It had been a number of years since I had seen Matthew until his Pap-Paw died in October. He was a grown man, very clean-cut and very polite and friendly.

Now, he’s left us to wonder what happened, at least until the autopsy results are known.

His mother is beside herself and will take no comfort from anyone except her father.

As a born-again Christian I find deaths the hardest things to try to deal with and to try to comfort people because it is such an emotional time for those closest to the departed one that no amount of reasoning or saying “I’m sorry” can”t help and I know that.

I go to the Bible (King James version this time) and find Scriptures that talk of death and dying.

We die because we inherited the sinful nature of Adam and Eve when they disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden.

The unknown human author of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 9:27:

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

This is physical death and we are all going to experience it unless Jesus returns in our lifetime to receive the Church unto Himself. We are already spiritually dead until and unless we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior and believe in Him for our salvation.

In Paul’s first letter to the Church in Corinth he says in I Corinthians 15:54-57:

54So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

55O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

56The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

57But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

I Thessalonians 4:15-17 gives us the hope and promise all born-again believers hold onto:

15For 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.

16For 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:

17Then 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.

Matthew is now one of those who is dead in Christ. His soul ascended to Heaven when he drew his last breath and I take great comfort in this knowledge.

In time, when the numbness begins to wear off, his mother, sister, father, step-father, grandmothers and grandfather will also take comfort in these words, for they all believe in Jesus as their Savior.

I know that Jesus grieves with them, because He walked this earth and felt every emotion man has. He knows how they feel and He will give them comfort. He cares.

If you don’t know Jesus in a personal way I urge you to contact a clergyman or go to this site to find out what you need to know to be assured of your salvation.

Rest in peace, Matthew. Rest in peace with your Pap-Paw and in the presence of your Savior. For whatever reason your job on earth is finished and now comes your reward.

I know Sue’s mother is also resting in peace and enjoying her reward after her life on earth.