I am so sorry for the loss of your friend. Know that I mourn with you though I know neither you nor your friend.
When I was 12 years old, my cousin who was like a brother to me, died unexpectedly from a brain aneurysm at the age of eleven. This was the first time that death had touched my family and I was profoundly affected by it. I dreamed about him for years afterward, and even as an adult, I would see a boy riding his bike or running across a lawn and for a split second, think it was him. I remember at the time asking questions to myself and others about where he was. How could he be alive one moment and not the next? The following summer, my mother sent me to stay with my aunt to give her some comfort. My aunt had multiple books on grieving, some religious and some secular, and being a voracious reader, I read them all. I remember that though they didn’t answer all my questions, they were a great comfort to me. A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis is wonderful.
Fast forward 20 years. I had stopped asking the big questions and got involved with life, until another traumatic event stopped me in my tracks and and made me re-examine my childhood questions, only this time the answers were a matter of life or death.
Last week, in my Sunday school class, we came across this verse in Ecclesiastes, 3:11, “He has set eternity in the human heart.....”. I do believe that we know we are eternal beings. Since we all will die, the question that my 12 year-old self left unresolved, is “what happens when we die?” “Where do we go?” Some people feel they can live on through what they leave behind. Others believe we turn into angels or that we “go to a better place”. How do we know if that is true or not? Where did those beliefs come from? Popular literature?Hollywood? The Bible? Those ideas are unbiblical.
“Is there an afterlife and where do I spend it?”, I believe, is one of the most important questions we can ask ourselves. I do believe in an afterlife of heaven where I will be with Jesus because I believe and trust in Him. Though physically, I am still alive, I have been born again through my faith in Jesus Christ. My eternal life has already begun. I do not claim to understand everything that that means, “For now we see through a glass darkly....”, 1 Corinthians 13:12, but the Hope that is within me now gives me assurance. You have asked a very poignant question. I pray that the Comforter be with you at this time and that as you seek, you find the answer.
Since you asked ... I believe there *will be* an afterlife, following the resurrection, which will occur when Jesus returns to claim His followers of all ages. Meanwhile, the faithful who have died lie in their graves in an unconscious sleep. That way, we will all go to heaven together! 😀 If you'd like to pm me, I will be happy to discuss this with you (or anyone else) and share Bible texts in support of these beliefs. Just click on my name and then click "message." Peace to you!
This is a very personal thing. When I was about 6, my Gramdmother came to me in my bedroom I shared with my sister. My GM had died at 42 from cancer. She bent over my sister's bed (then 2) and covered her up and motioned to me to be quiet. She then left. 41 yrs later my sister died from breast Cancer.. Heaven's time is not our time. I hear my name being called sometimes when the house is empty and I am just drifting off to sleep. I even answer its so clear.
I am not religious but I have faith. My Mom believed she was going to a better place and I feel that is where she is. Young, whole and with no pain.
Such a sweet story. Thanks for sharing. I adored my grandmother. She was an angel. My mom has some of her qualities but very different in other ways.
Her mom was decisive, not wishy washy. She was direct, not passive aggressive. She was caring but not fake flattery. She was smart but not a 'know it all.' My world was a better place when she was in it.
I see on your profile that your friend has passed away. I’m sorry for your loss. Many will tell you that the belief in an afterlife is a personal one. I do believe. When my mother had a devastating stroke she slept heavily for the first three weeks following it. We had no idea if she’d ever wake up. When she did there was a moment she and I were alone together in her hospital room and she said she knew more about heaven that she used to. That was all she said about it, I had to believe the comment had something to do with the weeks she’d slept free the stroke and whatever may have gone on. It gives me great comfort to know my mother is in heaven, a place where there’s no sorrow or pain, and I have the opportunity to see her again one day. I wish you the same peace
My father did not believe in an afterlife. The day he died he had very complex beautiful visions that he was sharing with us in great detail. He was not bedridden at the time. We were “arguing” with him about these impressions because we didn’t believe what he was saying could be possible. My mother died several years later. At one point six months before her passing, she was very ill and having similar “visions” including audible conversations with Dad. She told him she was not ready to die and that she wanted to stay with us for awhile longer. She thereafter recovered. The most amazing thing was that she told us stories she said my father had told her-true concurrent stories about two different family members that we did not know and could not have never even guessed. Now I completely believe in an afterlife.
There are voluminous scientific proofs of afterlife, and reincarnation.
Here are a few books that you might want to read if you want to know more.
Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation by Dr. Ian Stevenson
Touching Heaven: A Cardiologist's Encounters with Death and Living Proof of an Afterlife by Dr. Chauncey Crandall
Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife by Dr. Eben Alexander
I am so sorry for the loss of your friend. Know that I mourn with you though I know neither you nor your friend.
When I was 12 years old, my cousin who was like a brother to me, died unexpectedly from a brain aneurysm at the age of eleven. This was the first time that death had touched my family and I was profoundly affected by it. I dreamed about him for years afterward, and even as an adult, I would see a boy riding his bike or running across a lawn and for a split second, think it was him. I remember at the time asking questions to myself and others about where he was. How could he be alive one moment and not the next? The following summer, my mother sent me to stay with my aunt to give her some comfort. My aunt had multiple books on grieving, some religious and some secular, and being a voracious reader, I read them all. I remember that though they didn’t answer all my questions, they were a great comfort to me. A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis is wonderful.
Fast forward 20 years. I had stopped asking the big questions and got involved with life, until another traumatic event stopped me in my tracks and and made me
re-examine my childhood questions, only this time the answers were a matter of life or death.
Last week, in my Sunday school class, we came across this verse in Ecclesiastes, 3:11, “He has set eternity in the human heart.....”. I do believe that we know we are eternal beings. Since we all will die, the question that my 12 year-old self left unresolved, is “what happens when we die?” “Where do we go?” Some people feel they can live on through what they leave behind. Others believe we turn into angels or that we “go to a better place”. How do we know if that is true or not? Where did those beliefs come from? Popular literature?Hollywood? The Bible? Those ideas are unbiblical.
“Is there an afterlife and where do I spend it?”, I believe, is one of the most important questions we can ask ourselves. I do believe in an afterlife of heaven where I will be with Jesus because I believe and trust in Him. Though physically, I am still alive, I have been born again through my faith in Jesus Christ. My eternal life has already begun. I do not claim to understand everything that that means, “For now we see through a glass darkly....”, 1 Corinthians 13:12, but the Hope that is within me now gives me assurance. You have asked a very poignant question. I pray that the Comforter be with you at this time and that as you seek, you find the answer.
I am not religious but I have faith. My Mom believed she was going to a better place and I feel that is where she is. Young, whole and with no pain.
Such a sweet story. Thanks for sharing. I adored my grandmother. She was an angel. My mom has some of her qualities but very different in other ways.
Her mom was decisive, not wishy washy. She was direct, not passive aggressive. She was caring but not fake flattery. She was smart but not a 'know it all.' My world was a better place when she was in it.
https://harvest.org/resources/explore-resources/?type=radio&sort=popular
https://www.exploregod.com/what-the-bible-says-about-the-afterlife-paper
My father did not believe in an afterlife. The day he died he had very complex beautiful visions that he was sharing with us in great detail. He was not bedridden at the time. We were “arguing” with him about these impressions because we didn’t believe what he was saying could be possible. My mother died several years later. At one point six months before her passing, she was very ill and having similar “visions” including audible conversations with Dad. She told him she was not ready to die and that she wanted to stay with us for awhile longer. She thereafter recovered. The most amazing thing was that she told us stories she said my father had told her-true concurrent stories about two different family members that we did not know and could not have never even guessed. Now I completely believe in an afterlife.