The best is yet to come. For the believer that’s always a true statement. No matter how good it has been, the best is yet to come. No matter how good it is, or might get, the best is still yet to come. And, no matter how bad it’s been, or it is, or it might become, guess what? The best is yet to come. That’s a promise to claim!

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened — not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

(2Corinthians 5:1-5 ESV)

An earthly tent exchanged for a heavenly building. A temporary dwelling fashioned from the dust of the earth replaced with a permanent house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. The child of God prepared for this very thing. Take it to the bank. For the Spirit indwelling us is a guarantee of the reality awaiting for us.

And here’s what I’m chewing on this morning: we are going to be swallowed up by life.

Don’t think I’ve ever heard that phrase used at a funeral. We’ll talk of someone who has died as having “departed” or “passed on.” As we mourn differently than others who have no hope (1Thess. 4:13), we might even encourage one another in our grief by referring to a brother or sister who has left us as having been “promoted into glory.” But what if, as we laid their mortal body in the ground, we reminded ourselves that their mortality has been swallowed up by life?

A dear departed one more alive now than ever before in their life. Those who have gone before now fully, tangibly enveloped with a love we can but sense from within. Those who have traded in the tents of their sojourning, now in the presence of the Author of Life (Acts 3:15), as He fulfills His promise to give them life and life more abundantly . . . superiorly . . . extraordinarily . . . surpassingly . . . more exceedingly (Jn. 10:10).

Swallowed up by life. We know it’s coming. Don’t know when. Don’t know how. But we know that while to live is Christ, to die is gain (Php. 1:21). For we know that to be “away from the body” is to be “at home with the Lord” (2Cor. 5:8).

And then, we will thank Him, face to face, for His amazing grace. Even as we behold Him, face to face, in all His awesome glory.

The best is yet to come! Amen?