These are words that Jesus speaks to his disciples to comfort them before he is crucified. I can only imagine the fear and uncertainty that is running through their minds as Jesus talks about how he will die very soon.

I can (to a much, much lesser degree) relate it to my first days of nursing off of orientation. I just spent eight weeks following a real life nurse, and now I was on my own?! What if I forget how to feel a fundus, or what if I accidentally switched up babies? I felt comfortable following Jessica (what a lovely, beautiful, sweet nurse) around, and I just wasn’t too comfortable on my own.

Now imagine JESUS leaving you. Can you imagine the fear? This man, who is also God, is leaving them?! Oofta my anxiety, my fear would be out of control. I think what is interesting is that Jesus doesn’t answer all of their questions. He doesn’t walk them step by step what his plan is for them after he leaves them. He doesn’t coddle them and he doesn’t try to lessen the reality of what will soon happen.

He speaks seven words which have the power to absolutely change the way they (and us) can view our lives.

Because I live, you also will live.

What a cool promise.

What an absolutely life changing promise.

Because Jesus lived, died and rose from the dead—we get to live too. In Him, our life is no longer defined by a dash on a gravestone between two years. In him, we get to live for something bigger than the mist of life that we are facing. We have hope in a God who is bigger than anything life can throw at us. We have hope in a God who created mountains and dandelions and all eight billion people who are living in this world.

In him we have hope. Our life does not end when our earthly bodies fail. When we choose to believe in Jesus, we are adopted as his sons and daughters and when we die, he will no longer see the sins we have committed against him, he will see us as spotless and we get to live eternally in heaven. Shouting “Holy, holy holy is the Lord God Almighty”.

Sometimes I get a kick out of the fact that I believe Jesus was raised from the dead, but I fail to believe on a daily basis that he will give me the strength I need to get through whatever I am struggling with. Whether it is dealing with being a mom and trying to figure out how to raise this tiny human, or searching for my purpose, or choosing joy in a season where I live far, far away from what is comfortable.

What a beautiful promise to rest in. What a beautiful phrase to come back to over and over again when the brokenness of this world overwhelms us. When the world seems hopeless and bleak and challenging we can hold fast to this hope.

We may not have all of the knowledge we wish, we may not have all of the things we think we need, we will never know everything that will happen. This life is full of hard things, and Jesus never told us that our lives would be easy. He does not promise us money, he does not promise us health, he does not promise happiness, but he promises us life with him forever and ever and that is just so beautiful.

“Because I live, you also will live.” -John 14:19b