It was written in under 10 minutes time, and as a result of some dates on the calendar – several of them, and pretty close together – indicating that loved ones in our church family had passed away.

I thought of my hurting people and of my heart hurting along with theirs, and the words just seemed to flow.

You see, those who have been born again, redeemed by the blood of Christ, have a very different way of seeing death in spite of the ache of missing those now gone.

“A Different View Of ‘Gone’”

By Pastor Bo Wagner

May 3, 2024

“Of all of man’s emotions, that often strain belief, no deeper pow’r and longer hold does any have than grief.

We know that God is caring, of this we have no doubt; but what are we to do when grief doth toss our world about?

Redemption did not turn us into angels full of strength; we hurt for days and weeks and years or decades full of length.

But grief cannot destroy the one whose strength from hope is drawn, because we have, O bless His name, a different view of gone!

Our gone is just a little while, a passing separation, and for reunion, Christ our King is making preparation.

Our gone is filled with whispers from the heavens up above, assurances that we are watched by those that we still love.

Our gone is happy memories at just the perfect time, postcards sent from sunny shores of heaven’s perfect clime.

Our gone is friends with timely words that God Himself directed, promises that those still gone are also still connected.

And so we grieve and yet still smile as time goes marching on, because we have, O bless His name, a different view of Gone!”

Paul put it this way when he wrote to the church at Thessalonica, many of whom were grieving for their loved ones who had passed, and wondering what came next.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Caught up together; what lovely words and what lively hope! The grave that could not hold Christ will also not be able to hold either the saved or their saved loved ones. Reunion day is coming. And in the meantime, God so often sends those breezes and whispers from heaven; those coincidences that are not coincidence at all, those memories that had no reason to even pop into our minds, those perfectly times calls and messages to remind us that though we cannot see the connection between this world and the next, it is as real as the ground we are standing on.

And this is why I am pretty big into sending messages on ahead of me. In my prayer time, it is incredibly normal for me to say something like, “And Father, would you please tell Miss Brenda that we all miss her and that I said thank you for all of the mandarin orange cakes she made me while she was here? And that I want another one from her as soon as I arrive?”

I do not think or hope the message will get to her; I know that it will.

In Hebrews chapter eleven, God gives us a list of Old Testament saints who were already in glory. And then he went on in chapter twelve to tell us that we who are still here running our race have a great cloud of witnesses watching us, doubtless cheering us on. In other words, saved loved ones who have gone before us are, at least in some measure, able to watch as we run the race they have already run. Which is why I also love to look to the heavens from time to time and say something like, “What do you think of that, Miss Christine?” I can almost see her smiling as she looks at a full church that had only a few people when she left for glory.

I call out a lot of names, really; I remember them all and can’t wait to see them again.

We really do have a very different and very encouraging view of “gone.”