The Last Goodbye

June 30, 2026

Death is a thief, not a king.

A funeral has a way of making life tell the truth. The guest book is open. Flowers sit beside the casket. The room smells faintly of perfume and lilies. People whisper, hug and wipe their eyes with folded tissues. At the graveside, someone stares at the ground because looking up would finish breaking them.

“What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14).

A mist.

I make plans as if tomorrow owes me something..then I stand beside a grave and the Lord reminds me how small this life is compared with forever.

Still, for the Christian, short life does not mean small hope. The mist that vanishes here does not vanish from God. The believer who closes his eyes in Christ opens them with Christ.

I think of the saints we miss and my heart still aches. Faith does not make love painless. It teaches grief where to look.

The cemetery is the part we can see.

Christ is the part we believe.

And He has never lost one of His own.