Consider this: … it was God who cast satan and the other rebellious, contending, resisting, unhappy angels to the earth among us. We may either join them in their consigned punishment, misery, jealousy, and hatefulness here or we can aspire to the transcendent life Christ teaches us to live, in the world but not of it….. and then step across the threshold to life beyond “this present darkness” that all must travel through.
Every challenge I face, every hardship I surrender to Christ becomes a victory in light of the goal to grow into His grace and image. Life is not intended to be easy…. it is intended to equip and refine us for righteousness so we can be fully present in our perfected existence to God and one another in eternity
We all, every one, journey through this valley of the shadow of death. But we are sustained through it by the Lord and we emerge from it when God has completed the work of making us whole in Christ and escorts us into glory with himself. My husband received his victorious entry into that glory and I shall, too. Our suffering in this life is not in vain and it is but a brief moment in light of eternal life. It is our suffering that creates the “pearl of great price” in our own lives that becomes the gateway to our eternal home. God desires to craft our pearl with great care and beauty. In cooperating with God in making a pearl of our lives we, too, may become an entry way to eternal life for others by showing them what life in Christ can help us become. (Revelation 21:21)
A friend and Christian life coach spoke recently about “beautiful grief” that honors our loved ones who now abide in the Lord’s glory. We consecrate it to God to be shaped into a vessel of honor.