….absent from the body—present with the Lord.– 2 Corinthians 5:8
Writing about the fact that, for the believer, there is no separation from Christ, Octavius Winslow said:
Death cannot separate us from the love of God
which is in Christ Jesus—and all the blessings
which that love bestows. Death separate us? No!
Death unites us the more closely to those blessings,
by bringing us into their more full and permanent
possession.Death imparts a realization and a permanence to all
the glorious and holy longings of the Christian. The
happiest moment of his life is his last! Then it is
that he feels how precious the privilege, and how
great the eminence—of being a believer in Jesus.And the day which darkens his eye to all earthly scenes
—opens it upon the untold, and unimaginable, and
ever increasing glories of eternity! It is the birth
day of his immortality!Jesus, the Conqueror of death, will approach and
place His almighty arms beneath you, and lay your
head upon His loving bosom. Thus encircled and
pillowed, you “shall not see death,” but passing
through its gloomy portal, shall only realize that
you had actually died, from the consciousness of
the joy and glory into which death had ushered
you!
