When you attain a certain age — for instance, mine — your friends start involuntarily disappearing. This is otherwise known as an “unscheduled stop” in airline parlance.

Those friendly faces, once so familiar, comforting and caring in life, begin fading away in death as though you never knew them.

I’m told it was unwise for World War II bomber air crews to become too familiar with one another because so many of them would never return from their missions.

Better not to become attached, the pain of loss would be too great.

Each of we humans are on a mission as well, tumbling through time in rickety, vulnerable vehicles (our bodies), having been unceremoniously thrust into a high-risk environment at birth (our broken world).

And then we learn, like those unfortunate bomber pilots facing deadly flak, that there is an Enemy (Satan) seeking our eternal destruction by devouring our very souls.

So how can we “make it through” this mission called “life” victoriously without becoming frozen with fear? Keep in mind, there is no turning back.

Death — an end, or a beginning?

The “big daddy” fear that we all face is death. Scripture, in Hebrews 2:15, reminds us that all men, “… through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives …”

But scripture also tells us that there is a release from this slavery if we just look in the right direction. More on this shortly.

First, a question: Does death HAVE to be an end to our lives, hopes, dreams, relationships, our very existence? Is there an alternative?

The scripture quoted above addresses this in Hebrews 2:14-16:

“Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself (Jesus) likewise also partook of the same, so that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”

The genius of Christ’s incarnation is that by becoming a bona fide human, while remaining fully God, Jesus was able to die in our place for our sins, settling forever the sin problem (which has haunted all men from birth) for those who believe in Him.

A quote by C.S. Lewis in his The Chronicles of Narnia series sheds light on this seeming paradox:

“But what does it all mean?” asked Susan when they were somewhat calmer. ‘It means,’ said Aslan (a type of Christ), ‘that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.”

Christ made it possible for our physical death to become a beginning, ushering us into a conscious eternal dimension of spiritual existence described by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:8-10, “Things which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the human heart, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.”

How About You?

So, where is your “home?” Christians believe their true homes are in Heaven. Sadly, for those who reject Christ’s offer of eternal life, their earthly home will forever fade away at death and with it, the end of all hope.

Oh, Death, Where Is Thy Sting?

Oh death, how like you are, to the Wizard of Oz,
All bluster and smoke, all bark, and no bite.
We’re shocked at your hubris, with so little to show,
Don’t you get it, you bully, you’ve been punched in the nose?

Haven’t you heard? Don’t you follow the news?
Jesus showed up and smashed your party to bits.
No longer must we tremble with bone chilling fear, 
At the approach of your shadow, so dark and so cold.

Our Savior did die, and was later entombed,
His grief-stricken followers were scattered, afraid for their lives.
But oh, that glorious Sunday when He returned, proving the end of death,
Holding the keys of death and Hades in His nail-scarred hands forevermore.

Why do so few believe this message? Don’t they want it to be true?
Don’t they know their eternal destinies hang in the balance?

•        •        •

“Do not be afraid; I (Jesus) am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.”
— Revelation 1:17-18