I have written and spoken about the fact that I do not fear death. However I never thought about qualifying that statement until the dearest person on earth to me, my wife Beverly, left earth for heaven. Had I been forthcoming about my fears I would have confessed that there was a sense in which I feared death. I feared the thought of her leaving me. My fear had nothing to do with fearing for her sake, because I knew she would be with the Lord. My fear was, “What will I do without her?”.
Naturally I could preach a sermon on that subject, but I knew expounding on it and experiencing it is two different things. I had suffered the loss of my parents, a sister, a child, and many dear friends, but I knew this would be different. And indeed it is. The one I love more than any other was ripped out of my arms on January 6th.
My life is different now and will be until the day that I join her in that heavenly home. I won’t attempt to describe the affect here, but I do want to affirm one fact. As I explained to a dear brother in Christ, “I have experienced that God’s grace is truly sufficient”.
I have always felt that Bev’s death would be the hardest thing I could possibly experience and I still believe that, but now I know from experience what I’ve always preached to others – “ God’s grace is sufficient!”.
I don’t know what you are going through or what great mountain of difficulty you will face in the future, but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God’s grace is sufficient, just like He promised.- HDS
