Sleeping in Christ

Last night, at the viewing before Kayla's funeral, there was an open casket. I couldn't get over the fact that it looked like Kayla was just sleeping. Then I thought, "Yes, her spirit is with Jesus now, but her body is just sleeping-waiting for that day when Christ comes again."

I thought of Jesus when twice he said that a person was "sleeping" when they had died:
Lazarus (John 11:11-14)
"These things said he,...'Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.'

Then said his disciples, 'Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.' Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep.

Then said Jesus unto them plainly, 'Lazarus is dead.'

Then later, Jesus wept.
I think it was for those who grieved around Him. He had eternal life and hope, but they did not understand.



Jairus's daughter. (Luke 8:)
"And, behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue: and he fell down at Jesus' feet, and besought him that he would come into his house:for he had one only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay a dying. But as he went the people thronged him.
...While he yet spake, there cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue's house, saying to him, Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master.
But when Jesus heard it, he answered him, saying, 'Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole.'
And when he came into the house, he suffered no man to go in, save Peter, and James, and John, and the father and the mother of the maiden. And all wept, and bewailed her: but he said, 'Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth.'
And they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead. And he put them all out, and took her by the hand, and called, saying, 'Maid, arise.'
And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway: and he commanded to give her meat."

It also says in I Cornithians 15:51-52, "Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."

We shall have new bodies, perfect and glorious.
What a great hope!

Jesus said, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? "