Loss and Victory

Today I learned that a gentleman, to whom I have been bringing Holy Communion to for the last year, is now in his last days on this earth. I have mixed emotions of sadness, loss, and yet victory for him as well.

During the last year, I have watched this man’s health deteriorate from cancer, his physical frame becoming thinner and thinner as the months continue. The last time I saw him, just before Palm Sunday, he said to me “I don’t know why the man upstairs doesn’t want me yet”.

I tried my best to encourage him, that however many more days he has left on this earth, can be offered up to Jesus to unite with the Lord’s own suffering on the cross. “ In my body I am completing whatever remains of Christ’s sufferings. I am doing this on behalf of his body, the church.” Colossians 1:24

Today as I have learned from his wife that he is now in his last hours, I can only pray for his peace and comfort and for the peace and comfort to his family who is about to experience this loss. But for my friend, he is about to experience such great victory!

1 Corinthians 15:55–57 (NRSVCE)

55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.