I Thessalonians 4:1-18
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven … And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. (vv. 16-17) We Christians have hope, we have confidence that when we die we will be with the Lord. Paul makes it clear here that our hope is well-founded. Look at all of what he says: The Lord will descend from heaven; the dead in Christ will rise; those who are alive will join the dead in Christ to meet the Lord; and we will always be with the Lord. What hope, what glory! We often talk about seeing those loved ones who have died when we ourselves die. Again, Paul makes it clear – both those believers who have died and those believers who are living will join together to meet Jesus. We will see them: Mary Ann Duddy, Millie Rodes, our friends and family members. Because Jesus died and rose, we too will die and rise. We are eternal beings. Let’s live in the reality of that eternity!!
See also: April 7 / I Thess. 4:1-12; April 8 / I Thess. 4:13-18