Gone forever...No, there IS hope

I love to read. I read very, very fast and I read all the time. I will read so much in my lifetime that I am sure these big green eyes of mine will soon need corrective lenses. Can't believe I have lived this long without them yet. This weekend with an extra day off, I downloaded a book and curled up happy and content to read. The book was pretty good, not great, it is actually a movie now. I probably should not say which one as I don't want to spoil it for anyone...

So... if you are reading or going to see "One Day" stop reading right now. Spoiler alert.

Anyway, I was reading the final chapters and the book took a turn that I did not expect. I could see it coming in that chapter but that is not what bothered me. It was actually pretty clique for this type of book. What did bother me deeply was how the author described the death of this character.

"Then Emma Mayhew dies, and everything that she thought or felt vanishes and is gone forever.."

Everything in me reacted to that line. Everything in me that believes and hopes and has faith recoiled to that line. I could see what some believe, that this life is all we have and that death is the final curtain. It made me so sad because it doesn't have to be that way. I wanted to cry out, "No, there is more." I know it is just a fictional story, but the belief is how too many live their lives.

It left me feeling such emptiness. I don't know how they do it. I don't know how they stand at a grave and survive. I don't know how they make it through the highs and lows of this life without the Hope that comes from Him. It made me feel so bad and I called out to the God that I know watches over me to reach out to those who live without hope. Death is not the end. Death is but one door that leads to the Big Show. Death is goodbye to the earthly body, but not the thoughts, the feelings, the soul, the heart of who we are. That continues. Now, you may be saying you don't KNOW as you have not died, but I KNOW because of WHO I know. I know because of what I have seen when loved ones left this earth.


The biggest fear of so many is becoming nothing. Not continuing. Ending of all endings. But that is not the way it is. There is hope because of what Jesus did for us. "Oh Death, Where is thy victory, O' Death where is thy sting?"

He came, He loved us and He defeated death on that cross. Hope was His gift to us and Hope continues. Blessed assurance. Life without end. Everlasting to everlasting. It is not a fairy tale or an illusion. It can be so much more than the loss of every thought or feeling. There is a hope that stretches beyond the grave. My prayer is that someone somewhere reads this and asks for that blessed assurance. That is all it takes and it will be yours. No one can snatch that gift that awaits away from you. There is more to this life, so much more.