With faith in Jesus Christ and in his resurrecting power, we know that death is not the end.
Photo by Etienne Pauthenet
I’m familiar with death. My parents were older than many parents when I was born, so my grandparents were older than many of my friends’ grandparents. Now that I am twenty-three, many of my friends have grandparents in their seventies or younger, but three of my grandparents passed away years ago. And I’ve also lost friends to cancer and car crashes.
Thinking of these missing loved ones inevitably leaves me feeling quite melancholy. But it is in these moments of remembrance that my testimony of the Savior and his redeeming power is most palpable.
In the Ensign article “Am I Going to Die?” by Gregory Hamblin, a father must explain to his distraught son that yes, we will die—but no, that doesn’t mean we will end. This father calls upon his testimony of Jesus Christ and the reality of Christ’s Resurrection from the dead, as well as his understanding of the plan of salvation, to answer his son’s question. He explains to his weeping boy that we are simply visiting earth and that we will someday return to our heavenly home.
How beautiful this understanding is! It is this knowledge that makes LDS funerals quiet and sad rather than desperately miserable: we have answers to the age-old questions. We know that death is a part of the process. We know that our spirits live on and that our bodies will be resurrected and perfected at the last day.
I am grateful for my Savior and his sacrifices and for my knowledge of his power, good works, and grace. This knowledge is what makes memories of my family and friends so reverent and testimony-building for me. This knowledge is what makes death feel more like moving away from family, rather than leaving them behind forever. It has been a bittersweet vehicle for building my testimony; however, I am grateful that this knowledge gives death a greater purpose.
I encourage you to read Gregory Hamblin’s Ensign article “Am I Going to Die?”
Source: Ensign
—Madeleine Lewis Smith, Mormon Insights
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Find more insights
For more comfort, read or watch “Doors of Death” by President Russell M. Nelson.
You can hear another perspective about the spiritual growth that can come during these difficult times by reading Camden Hardy-Harrison’s Mormon Insights article “Dealing with the Death of a Loved One.”
Read Karee Brown’s Mormon Insights articles “Comprehending Death.”
Read “The Good in Grief,” a Mormon Insights article by Bradley Elders.