We interrupt our advent meditations before we even get started with a reminder of one of the things we’re waiting for: an end to death:

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. (Revelation 21.4, NIV)

That is, until the old order passes away, there WILL be death, mourning, crying, and pain.

My friend and Navigator mentor Paul Stanley passed away Thanksgiving morning, just three days short of his 79th birthday. Actually, Paul has been gone for several years, having suffered from dementia. I wrote about Paul and his wife, Phyllis, back in September 2019.

Given the dementia, it’s a blessing he didn’t hang on longer. Phyllis wrote, “We are rejoicing that my precious husband is now with Jesus.” But still, we would have rather seen him healthy, making disciples, and developing leaders as he did for a very long time, in the Army, as a Navigator missionary in Germany, as International Vice President of The Navigators, as the founder of the Leader Development Network, and as Interim President of another organization, Greater Europe Mission.

So we wait…that’s what advent is about.

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3.8, NKJV)

For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. (1 Corinthians 15.25, 26, NKJV)

But we take comfort during this first week of Advent, the week of Hope:

Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. (1 Thessalonians 4.13, NIV)