Continuum of Life

Why Did God Take My Loved One—Especially Now?

Every now and then a grieving son, daughter, husband, wife or other person will ask, “Why did God take my loved one—especially now?” One day, as I was seeking God’s heart over that issue, God lovingly and gently said, “I am not a taker; I am a Giver and a Receiver.”

 Indeed, God is the Giver of all blessings, including life. We are His precious creation. He loves us with an unceasing love and His least intention is to heartlessly and capriciously rip apart relationships. His greatest desire is that we and our loved ones live in intimate relationship with Him for eternity.

 In order to adequately answer the question, we must first of all look at the purposes of both living and dying and we understand these purposes through the enduring quality of Holy Scripture.

 In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, He also created Man and Woman and placed them in the Garden of Eden, also called Paradise. It was perfection. There were no needs of any kind; God provided everything. His one condition was that Adam and Eve may eat of the fruit of the Tree of Life, but they may not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. As long as Adam and Eve were obedient to God they daily walked in fellowship with Him.

 At one point, however, the couple doubted God and tasted of the fruit of the forbidden tree and in so doing disobeyed God. In disobeying Him they also broke relationship with Him. Their punishment was that they could no longer live in Paradise. From then on they must work by the sweat of their brow. This is also the point at which death, disease and imperfection entered the world. The Bible begins in the perfection of Paradise and it ends in the perfection of Paradise. In between it is not Paradise, and we live in the in-between. Thus, the explanation of the origin of death and disease.

 God, however, loves us so much that He does not want to give up on us. He still desires that we be in relationship with Him for all eternity, and provides a path for us to return to Paradise and to relationship with Him both now and forever.

So, Consider (1): God created us to live forever. God first births us into earthly life and then through baptism we are birthed into the beginning stages of eternal life. We are first birthed into an imperfect world, a world that is the result of Adam and Eve’s breaking relationship with God thereby bringing death, disease and imperfection into the world. But again, in this imperfect world God’s greatest desire is still that we live in intimate relationship in Paradise with Him.

 Consider (2): While we are living in this imperfect world, God prepares us for a Heavenly experience. Jesus puts it this way: “In my Father’s mansion are many rooms and I go there to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again [when the time is right] and receive you unto myself that where I am you may be also.”

 When is the time right? In II Corinthians 5:1ff we read: “When the earthly tent we live in is taken down [when it is broken or diseased], when we die and leave these bodies, we have a home in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God Himself …. [In this imperfect world] we grow weary in these present bodies, as we long for the day when we will put on our new heavenly bodies like new clothing… . We want to slip into our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by everlasting life. God Himself has prepared us for this….”

 Consider (3): What is our preparation? It is found in our purpose and our journey. Our purpose in life, even this imperfect life, is to be Christ like; our journey is also to be Christ like. As Jesus’ body became more and more weakened through the things he was experiencing, he was also being prepared for that moment when the Father would receive him into His arms. Jesus knew that his journey was a sacred journey and as we draw nearer and nearer to that time of transitioning from earthly life into the fullness of eternal life we begin to see our journey as sacred, as well, finally arriving at that moment of surrender where we too can say, “Father, into Thy hands I commit my spirit.”

 How, you might ask, do we arrive at the moment of surrender? Through the experiences of the journey we are spiritually cleansed. We take nothing with us from this life into the next life; it all gets worked out here. Like Jesus, we go through struggles, battles, various and sundry difficulties, sometimes even martyrdom, and in so doing our bodies reach a point where they can no longer continue the earthly journey and they surrender to the everlasting life from which they came and take on the new bodies that Christ has prepared for us.

As Christ was entombed, our spirits are often entombed–by attitudes, traditions, fears, guilt, anger and other emotions and conditioning. Jesus Christ paid the price at the cross for us to be set free from all that—that we might enter the next stage of eternity whole and complete. The blood shed from the wounds of Jesus’ body paid the price for the forgiveness of the sins of all people of all times—if they are willing to accept it and to believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior. The hope and the goal are one: that the closer we come to the end of our earthly experience the more we surrender our bodies to Christ in order that he might live in us. And as we do so love and humility develop wider and deeper dimensions, forgiveness and reconciliation are experienced in new and freeing ways and Christ likeness finally becomes complete.

 Again, when we are no longer able to continue our earthly journey, when the time is right, we are received back into the arms of the One who created us, loves us, and longs to spend eternity with us.

Consider (4): In the Christian faith we cannot talk about dying without at the same time rejoicing in resurrection. When his physical body was weakened and depleted, Jesus died upon a cross, his blood paying the price for the forgiveness of our sins. He was buried and sealed in a tomb but in three days arose to live again in a new body and a new life and today lives in heaven with God. Like Jesus, dying and resurrection are also our deliverance from an imperfect world. Resurrection is the signature event in the Christian faith. Jesus defeated death for all people for all of time. His being in Heaven (Paradise) today makes it possible for us to be there one day as well, thus fulfilling God’s desire that we spend eternity in Paradise with Him.

 Again, God is not a taker; God is a Giver and a Receiver. He is the giver of life and the giver of love. More than that, He is life, and He is love. And when our earthly life and journey are complete our Loving Giver receives us into His arms that we might spend Paradise in His eternal Love. Dying is the process by which the eternal part of us separates from the physical and we transition into eternity that we might forever dwell with Him Who offers love and Who is Love, both now and forever more.

 Written by Chuck Tooman