I held my father\u2019s hand as the accordion machine pumped air into his lungs. It was time to say goodbye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How do I let go of the one who tethered me, taught me how to see the world? How do I let go of the hugs that could melt away tears?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The nurse clicked off the death-machine march, and the room fell silent enough to hear dad\u2019s deflating breaths. My husband and I sang \u201cAmazing Grace\u201d as I held dad\u2019s cooling hand. A tear traced down his face. He whispered his last breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In that moment, I wanted to reach out my arm and grab forward into the new heavens and new earth (Revelation 21:1). I wanted to run into my father\u2019s safe arms, skipping ahead of the pain and suffering of grief. It\u2019s been eighteen years, and thinking about his death still makes me want to hide in a corner for a week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because the reality is, death is a curse (Genesis 2:17, Hebrews 9:27). A consequence (Romans 6:23). A horrific reality of the world torn by sin (Genesis 5). Where parents and children die and our souls cry out, \u201cIt should not be this way!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What pain or suffering has your family faced because of the curse of death? In our pain, our hope echoes as we wait for the reverse of the curse to come, tearing through the clouds\u2014a new reality where God once again dwells with his creation and there is no death or suffering, no mourning or pain, for the curse has been done away with (Revelation 21:3\u20134).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But for now, we breathe in a heavy weight as we wait for this hope. We carry the marks of our brokenness. These marks can look like the physical scars of cancer surgery or maybe the stiff knee from high school soccer. Maybe they look like the deeper wounds of injustice or the loss of a spouse. Whatever the wounds, we all have them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And with every wound, we reach forward more to our great hope, a hope not like a wishing well or positive vibes (whatever those are). Our future hope is a physical reality, paved with gold and flooded with the light of God\u2019s glory, where all who are in Christ will dwell with new bodies that never die (1Corinthians 15:42\u201349, Revelation 21:21\u201323). This is trustworthy and true (Revelation 21:5, 22:6).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So as we suffer momentarily, even in the darkest days of despair, we can trust the promises of our future home. We set our hope on things above (Colossians 3:1\u20134) because we can be sure God will make all things new (Revelation 21:5)\u2014including my father\u2019s body.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I held my father\u2019s hand as the accordion machine pumped air into his lungs. It was time to say goodbye. How do I let go of the one who tethered me, taught me how to see the world? How do I let go of the hugs that could melt away tears? The nurse clicked off […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":72744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[306],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-revelation2025"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[72906],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"#SheReadsTruth","devotional_text":"THE NEW CREATION<\/b>
\r\nby Seana Scott<\/i>
\r\n
I held my father\u2019s hand as the accordion machine pumped air into his lungs. It was time to say goodbye.<\/p>
\r\n
How do I let go of the one who tethered me, taught me how to see the world? How do I let go of the hugs that could melt away tears?<\/p>
\r\n
The nurse clicked off the death-machine march, and the room fell silent enough to hear dad\u2019s deflating breaths. My husband and I sang \u201cAmazing Grace\u201d as I held dad\u2019s cooling hand. A tear traced down his face. He whispered his last breath.<\/p>
\r\n
In that moment, I wanted to reach out my arm and grab forward into the new heavens and new earth (Revelation 21:1). I wanted to run into my father\u2019s safe arms, skipping ahead of the pain and suffering of grief. It\u2019s been eighteen years, and thinking about his death still makes me want to hide in a corner for a week.<\/p>
\r\n
Because the reality is, death is a curse (Genesis 2:17, Hebrews 9:27). A consequence (Romans 6:23). A horrific reality of the world torn by sin (Genesis 5). Where parents and children die and our souls cry out, \u201cIt should not be this way!\u201d<\/p>
\r\n
What pain or suffering has your family faced because of the curse of death? In our pain, our hope echoes as we wait for the reverse of the curse to come, tearing through the clouds\u2014a new reality where God once again dwells with his creation and there is no death or suffering, no mourning or pain, for the curse has been done away with (Revelation 21:3\u20134).<\/p>
\r\n
But for now, we breathe in a heavy weight as we wait for this hope. We carry the marks of our brokenness. These marks can look like the physical scars of cancer surgery or maybe the stiff knee from high school soccer. Maybe they look like the deeper wounds of injustice or the loss of a spouse. Whatever the wounds, we all have them.<\/p>
\r\n
And with every wound, we reach forward more to our great hope, a hope not like a wishing well or positive vibes (whatever those are). Our future hope is a physical reality, paved with gold and flooded with the light of God\u2019s glory, where all who are in Christ will dwell with new bodies that never die (1Corinthians 15:42\u201349, Revelation 21:21\u201323). This is trustworthy and true (Revelation 21:5, 22:6).<\/p>
\r\n
So as we suffer momentarily, even in the darkest days of despair, we can trust the promises of our future home. We set our hope on things above (Colossians 3:1\u20134) because we can be sure God will make all things new (Revelation 21:5)\u2014including my father\u2019s body.<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"18","scripture":"Revelation 21:1-27, 1 Corinthians 15:42-49, Colossians 3:1-4","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}