The past year’s eyes overflow tears. Grief gushes from human hearts. We ache for those we can no longer hold in our arms.

Sometimes, grief is emptiness.

An empty bedroom.

A hollow womb.

A bare finger.

A silent phone.

Arms, wide open for an embrace that won’t come.

Grief.

It leaves us longing for something better. It reminds us that this fallen world is broken. Although we can see glimmers of hope and beauty, it remains just that… broken. A day begins beautiful and peaceful, hopeful and grateful, but ends with heavy hearts and puffy eyes and lifeless spaces.

Every broken relationship, broken dream, broken life points us to death. The end of all things is a reminder that this is not our eternal. Eventually, all of this will end.

However, Isaiah, a Hebrew prophet, foretold of the end of death. Chapter 25 describes God ending death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away all of our tears. He will calm our hearts and mind and keep us in peace. People will rejoice and be thankful for God’s salvation.

The hope we can have when we face our brevity in this form is that someday we won’t know death. Someday death itself will end.

In eternity, our Savior, Jesus, will hold our faces, look lovingly into our eyes and brush our giant alligator tears away. He will say to us that there is no more brokenness here. There is no more loss or death or divorce. There is nothing here that will hurt. Everything has been made new. Until then, we wait.

We use our time of waiting to allow Light to pour out of the brokenness in our lives. When wounds surely come we look to Jesus for healing. We allow the Holy Spirit to flow through these sorrows to find redemption, to find purpose, to find life.

Are you confident in your eternity? Death came into the world because humans doubted God’s love for them and did not obey. This disobedience, sin, is what leads to brokenness in our lives. Through thousands of years, God promised He was going to provide a way for us to have new life, eternal life. He promised a way to have an ongoing relationship with Him. And then He did. God came to earth as Jesus the Son of Man. He lived a perfect life, but in the end was rejected, broken and crucified. He died and took on the weight and the punishment for all of the sin of the world. He defeated death and rose from the dead on the third day. Our Savior is not dead but alive. He lives. Because He took on the penalty of death in our place, we can have the fullness of life, eternal life. I urge you to turn to God, to seek Him, to obey Him. Although your circumstances may feel overwhelming and full of heartache, know that for those who love Him, God works all of these out for our good. He redeems and He restores. If not now, if not in this life, then most certainly in eternity.