Death. The separation of our spirit from our body. Such a finality to our physical bodies. To lose our loved ones is so surreal. Here today, gone tomorrow. Just a shell left behind to mourn over, then bury. After recently going through the process of fighting disease and the weakening of the body and eventual death of a loved one, there are some things that I can take away from the experience.

1. Our physical bodies will weaken but our spiritual bodies can become stronger. ( II Cor. 4:16) We have to choose this path of growing spiritually. It does not just happen with age. Our spiritual man strengthens only with prayer and feeding on God's Word from the Scriptures.

2. Christians have a built-in family of brothers and sisters to love and support them during the hard times of physical disease (Eph. 4:32) . And the time when we go near the valley of the shadow of death, the great Shepherd promised He would be with us then. (Psalms 23:4 )

3. Even when death occurs, this is not the end for a Christian. The Scriptures say that "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."( Psalms 116:15). It is our job to become saints (Christians) while we are here and prepare ourselves for the joys that are to come!