From a purely human perspective, death does not seem to have much going for it. It breaks into our relationships and permanently deprives us of the company of our friends. It is often accompanied by pain and suffering. But it is an experience which happens to everybody, and God allows it to happen, so it must in some way be part of God’s plan. Something of God’s plan is revealed in chapter 14 of the Revelation:
A third angel followed them, shouting, “People who worship the beast and its idol, and receive a mark on their forehead, or on their hand, will also drink the wine of God’s anger, which has been poured undiluted into the cup of his fury… The believers who obey the commandments of God, and are faithful to Jesus, must endure patiently.” I heard the voice from heaven saying, “Write, ‘People who die in the Lord from now on are blessed…’”
What to us appears bad may ultimately be simply a phase we pass through before reaching a far more desirable existence. Some people believe that death is the end, life is all there is, and we are nothing more than the physical bodies in which we are contained. But that is not what followers of Jesus believe. For Christians, life on earth is about living our part in God’s plan until we can be with him forever.