No one likes facing end of life situations. That’s because addressing the decline of a loved one brings our own mortality into focus like nothing else. It’s a reflecting pool that few want to peer into for very long. Even the best photo-editing tools our modern technology offers can't erase the ravaging effects of age. As someone else put it, often in our later years, we leave this world “with all the limitations of a baby, but none of the loveliness.” Perhaps that’s more fearful than death itself. The fear of the unknown and the uncontrollable aspects of our life can leave us feeling confused and scared. However, in 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 (NIV), Paul invites believers to be freed from the chains of this terrestrial view and maintain a hope-filled eternal perspective. “… The body that is sown is perishable, is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” Our loved ones may be aging or even be gone, but the hope that keeps us going is that this life is only temporary and that our eventual parting is only for a moment for those of us who are believers. We’ll be united one day in heaven where there is “no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4 NIV).