There’s a figure of speech that goes like this: only the good die young. It’s not true, but it’s a way of making people feel better when someone they love doesn’t live to be 80 or 90. Usually when we talk about dying, we talk about old people, grey-haired people, great-grandmas and grandpas. We don’t think about young people dying. But the horribly sad truth is that sometimes younger people die. They get cancer, have heart attacks, or die in an accident at work. Sometimes brothers or sisters die too—from a tumor, a drive-by shooting, or car accidents.
It’s horrible and tragic because death was not part of God’s original design; we were made to live forever. When Adam and Eve sinned, God made sure we wouldn’t have to live forever in a world that hurts and makes us feel lonely. As awful as death is, God uses it to take us out of this sad world and give us the heaven that Jesus has prepared for us. In Isaiah 57:1,2, we read, “The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart. . . . No one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter peace; they find rest as they lie in death” (NIV).
If it weren’t for Jesus, death would be the end. Instead, when Jesus defeated death, he made it possible for us to be with him forever. Now, while we wait for our turn to go to heaven, we know that the people who died young are with a living God who is caring for them and rejoicing because they were spared from even more evil. They are resting in peace. You will see them again. That’s a promise—and God never lies.
