We thought about our Dad. We missed him. It was a heart-rending moment, and it still is now 20 years later. But some heart did break. The Greek word he uses is the word for striking camp, loosening the tent ropes, pulling up the tent pins and moving on.
Death is a moving on.
New Testament scholars, recalls the terrible days of World War II, when the Royal Air Force stood between Britain and destruction and the lives of its pilots were being sacrificially spent. We have only the sketchiest details, but we firmly believe that there is more to life than what we experience here. We believe that death is not a period but a comma in the story of life. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. He has a place in heaven set aside for him and his landlord is Jesus Christ.