The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. — 1 CORINTHIANS 15:26

I remember hearing about a woman who was saved and went to church, but her husband was unsaved. Their four-year-old son was sick. He was the only child they had. The unsaved husband would say to the wife, “You go on to church. I’ll keep the boy.”

The child grew worse until, finally, the doctor said, “I’ll just be honest with you. I don’t know what’s wrong with this child. I can’t find out what’s the matter with him. I don’t know what to do, but he’s going to die if he keeps going the way he is.”

Well, the child surprisingly got better, and the husband told his wife one night, “Go on to church. I’ll stay here with him. He’s doing fine.”

When the service was over, they were praying around the altar and someone came to the pastor and said that the little boy had just died. So the pastor went over to where the wife was kneeling and told her about it. Then the pastor and several of the church members went with her to the home.

When they walked in the door, they saw this dear man sitting on the bed with his only child, dead in his arms. He had such a look of agony on his face. He was sobbing, crying his heart out. He was reaching out for help from somewhere. Because he was unsaved and didn’t know God, he didn’t have the Comforter within him.

Many of the church people tried to help him. Some of them said, “God took your boy so you’d get saved.”

The man suddenly straightened up, laid the little boy down on the bed, wiped his tears, and said, “I want to tell you folks something. If God did that, to hell with Him.” Then he stomped out of the room.

I watched this man over a period of thirty to forty years. No one could reach him. He thought God robbed him of his four-year-old boy. No one had enough sense to sit down on the bed by this man’s side and say, “The devil did this. But your son’s spirit has gone to be with Jesus. He can’t come back to you, but you can go to him some day.” The man would have gotten saved.

Confession: God is not the author of death. The Bible says that death is an enemy. It’s the last enemy that will be put under foot. I’m looking forward to that day. Death is an enemy, not a friend. God is a friend.