Today would have been Dad’s 82nd birthday. Birthdays are usually times of joy, but sometimes, like today, they also bring pain. It’s still hard to accept I can’t just pick up the phone and call Dad to wish him Happy Birthday, to let him know how much I love him. It hurts to know that, in this life, I’ll never again hear his corny jokes or the sound of his laugh or feel his arms around me.
Yes, this is going to be a tough day for the Edison family. Yet, as difficult as this day may be, our family has so much to look forward to, because we know death is not the end. For those who have fallen asleep in Jesus, it is just a rest stop on the way to heaven.
Though Dad sleeps in the grave, though he will never again celebrate another birthday on this earth, we “do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13) Why? Because Dad has one more birthday yet to come!
Someday very soon “the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17 NKJV)
When Jesus comes again, when the last trumpet sounds, not only Dad, but all our loved ones who have fallen asleep in the Lord, will be raised into new life. They will be reborn! “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” (1 Corinthians 15:53). That will be the best birthday they’ve ever had!
But, on that day, it will not be just Dad and those who have died in the Lord who will celebrate one more birthday. 1 Thessalonians 4:17 promises after the dead in Christ have risen, “Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”
On that day we will all be reborn, but not to a life like we live now, a life filled with pain and sorrow, heartache and regret. 1 Corinthians 15:52 says we will be changed “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” We will be reborn into a life of never-ending joy, endless opportunity, a life where birthdays are no more, a life that never ends!
Today, if you too are missing someone who has passed away, “do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.” Shed a tear, but do not give into the sorrow or the pain. Instead, rejoice! Death is not the end! There’s one more birthday yet to come!