The pharmacy was not terribly busy as I stood at the counter waiting for my medicine. My husband walked up to me and handed me his phone. “Hello” I said. It was my younger brother, Dave…. “Oh sweetheart, he said, I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you….” “What?” I replied as my breath escaped me for a moment. “Scott has passed.” “What! What!” I said in disbelief. Scott is my older brother. He was my protector as a kid. He liked being in that role. No one was going to give his “kid sister” a hard time on his watch!
Scott struggled with many things like mental health issues and addiction as an adult. They caused him some problems in his younger days. But he did a fantastic job of learning to manage and overcoming those things. He took care of himself very well, living a simple life with his dog and enjoying being a grandpa ten times over!
His death came as such an unexpected event. It was a terrible accident in his own home. Worse thing was that he was alone when he passed.
Needless to say, my heart is broken. I wept in the pharmacy, wept in the car, wept at home. Slept, woke up and wept again. Then I decided; Yes I’m sad he’s gone, but I don’t mourn as those in the world mourn. God’s word says, “Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.” 1Thess. 4:13 I have the living hope of Jesus! Scott had this hope…which is not hope at all! It’s trust!
Years back when I was a rebellious teen, I went to visit my nineteen-year-old brother in Florida. He was all about Jesus. He went to church three times a week and told everyone who would listen about Him! I thought he’d lost his mind! As the years passed, Scott went to college and learned of all the world’s philosophies. He bought into them for a while as many learned men do. That’s about when I found Jesus, well He found me! Now I was picking him up in my car with Christian music blasting out loud, telling everyone who would listen, and even those who didn’t, about Jesus! Ten or twenty years went by. We had many conversations about the Lord. Scott wasn’t into church much as he struggled with anxiety and never felt like he fit in. But he lived in such a way that he didn’t have to tell people about Jesus, he showed them by the way he conducted his life. I believe that once he put his faith and trust in Christ way back when, that was it. As Jesus spoke on the cross, He speaks to my heart today…“It is finished!” Although my brother gave Jesus plenty of reasons not to love him over the years, not one of them worked! He was a beloved child of God. As such he is with Jesus right now. How exciting is that!
God’s word says, May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. 1Thess. 5:23-24 Jesus does this work in our souls that can’t be undone. This gives me cause for great hope! I look to the words of my Savior for comfort… "Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in Me.” John 14:1 I believe Lord, I believe!
“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27