One question that has always remained at the forefront of my mind, haunting my dreams and imagination for as long as I can recall: what is death like? God tells us Jesus has conquered death, and in the New Testament letters, the "Jesus-followers" do not seem to fear death at all! This always bothered me, because for so long - as far into my childhood as I can remember - I have, to great extremes, feared death, feared the actual experience of dying; the casuality and flippancy of the New Testament authors regarding death left me unsettled - how come death frightened me so and not them? And I was not alone; I've had many conversations with friends who, too, admit to fearing death.

Then I came to a new understanding of Jesus' words when he says, "God is not the God of the dead, but the living." The realization hit me that God will never allow us to cease to exist. Jesus says in John 8:51, as translated in the Amplified Bible, "I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, if anyone observes my teaching [lives in accordance with My message, keeps My word], he will by no means ever see and experience death." We will never cease to exist. The life we live now as the person we now are will continue, and it will continue in the universe in which we now exist. "Wow," you tell me, "that really makes me feel better." Wait - just think about what this means! For the soldier in Iraq, his spirit leaves the body right before the bullet strikes. For the innocent teen driver, she is whisked away before the semi crosses into her lane. For the repentant criminal in the electric chair, he has departed before electricity surges into his skull. For the Christians of the early church, their spirits crossed into Paradise before their bodies were mauled by lions in the arenas.

Thinking about it now, it's no small wonder the Christians of the early church weren't so concerned with death as we are. They understood that death literally holds no power over us; because we have been ransomed with the blood of the Messiah, because we have become heirs to the throne, destined to live in union and paradise with God forever, because we are children of the Creator, we do not have to face the physical ending of our bodies. We will be carried on before it ever comes to that - whether our transition be slowly in a nursing home or in the split-seconds before the semi slams into us on the freeway.