What a sobering reminder of life’s fragility. After the crash of TWA Flight 800 and killer tornadoes in the upper Midwest, I spent the last two days honoring two hundred prayer requests for those with cancer. Humbled, and a bit shaken, I long for something solid to hold on to in a moment when life seems so tenuous. In a world of tumult and surprise, exhilaration and disaster, all our questions ultimately get reduced to one: do we have an answer for our ultimate destiny, death?

        If we don’t, we all end life failing its most important test. When God chose to live in this world as a mortal, eternity hung on one moment. Could mortality be emptied of its loss and the lifeless body of God’s son live again?

        I believe Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead. I believe that the empty tomb was not robbed of its body by deceitful disciples, but that Satan was defeated at his cruel game of death. I believe that he will be defeated again and again in the death of those that belong to the Lord. I believe their future is tied to their Lord’s past.

        Catastrophe is a part of human life. We can’t push it back, any more than we can predict when it will raise its ugly head again. We only get one lifetime; none of us knows how short or how long that lifetime will be. What remains, however, is the promise that we are given a piece of eternity to hang on to, when this life lies just beyond our grasp. So we comfort one another with the reassurance that just as Jesus was raised from the dead, so we will be raised also to be reunited with those we love.