// Real Stories // Sam //

I’ve called myself a Christian my whole life, but I never fully understood the implications of my faith until losing my dad in December 2016 really brought the claims of Christianity into focus.

It’s become clearer to me who Jesus is. In becoming fully human, I believe in a God who walks alongside us and can empathise with our pain. In fact, one of the names of Jesus in the Bible is ‘Immanuel’, which means ‘God with us’. This means that God is always present in our lives and that we are never isolated in our times of distress. Throughout the past two years, I’ve felt this closeness in a way that I never experienced before. I’m grieving because I loved my dad a lot, and I still miss him. In times of sadness, I can take great comfort in the truth that Jesus grieved as well, and so affirms grief as the natural expression of our deep love for someone.

I also believe that Jesus solved the problem of death once and for all. In an extraordinary demonstration of his love, Jesus went through death for us. But unlike every person who ever lived before him, Jesus emerged the otherside, and so denied death the final word. The implications of this for us are enormous! One of Jesus’s last statements were these words spoken to the thief on the cross next to him: ‘today you will be with me in Paradise’. I wholeheartedly believe that my dad is with Jesus, and that this promise of eternal life is available to all who believe and trust in him.

Jesus shows us that the pain of grief is very real, but as is his promise of resurrection and restoration for his creation!

// Events week - Jan 28 - Feb 1 | 2019 //