"What Is" and "What Will Be"

<sup>Ten years ago today I stood beside a hospital bed holding my mother's hand as she passed from this world into the presence of her Savior. It is a day that I will never forget and even after ten years the memory of that day is still vivid in my mind. The fact that the memory of that day is still so vivid often makes it hard for me to believe that it really had been 10 years.

So many times since my mom died I find myself contemplating many "what ifs" and "why" scenarios. What if my mom had lived to see me graduate from college? What if she had lived to meet my husband? Why couldn't she have lived to attend my wedding or to see my sisters graduate from high school or to see and hold her grandchildren?

Over the years when these thoughts come into my mind they often quickly lead to wondering why God allowed the cancer and why He chose to take my mom when it would seem from a human perspective that she still had a lot to accomplish here on earth.

I have found that dwelling on the "what ifs" and "whys" in life cloud my mind and keep me from focusing on "what is" and "what will be".

These "what ifs" and "whys" take my focus away from the fact that God has blessed me with a loving husband and three precious children.

Most importantly dwelling on the "what ifs" and "whys" take my focus away from "what will be". There are so many passages in Scripture that assure us that for a believer death is hopeful. One day all believers will spend eternity in the presence of God worshiping Him forever! God has used First Thessalonians 4:13-18 to comfort me many times over the past ten years when I am tempted to dwell on the "what ifs and "whys"..

I am so thankful that I serve a God who is sovereign, good, and faithful even when we do not understand.

I Thessalonians 4:13-18
13</sup>But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.

¹⁴For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.

¹⁵For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

¹⁶For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

¹⁷Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

¹⁸Therefore comfort one another with these words.