As I’m sitting in my office, there’s a knock at the front door. Who is knocking at the door in the middle of the day? Probably the FedEx guy knocking and running away again. I take my time making my way to the door. When I open it up it’s my friend Kofi and his wife. Kofi is my Jehovah’s Witness friend. Kofi has been knocking on my door for at least four years now. About once a month Kofi and his son, or his wife, or one of their church members will knock at the door. Kofi will share a pamphlet with me and read a couple of Bible verses. He has not once asked me to his church, not once tried to coerce me into anything. We’ve had several interesting discussions about the Bible and what it says. He enjoys listening to my perspective, at least he pretends to. I consider Kofi a friend. I admire this man’s dedication and his patience. I don’t know what his end game is, but I look forward to our talks.
Today, it’s a video. The video is a short video “Is There Hope for the Dead?” It’s a short video outlining the promises that Jesus was resurrected and that we too will be resurrected, someday, to live on the Earth again. The thing about my conversations with Kofi, is I proselytize him just as much as he proselytizes me. I think I might have changed Kofi’s thinking on a few Bible verses. It’s a gentle, respectful back and forth.
His wife asks about the group that Tywana and I were starting (the local Helping Parents Heal affiliate). I tell them we’re no longer meeting, but I tell them about the 2,000 members of the HPH Online Group and the class I’m teaching on Thursday nights “Love Knows No Death”. Kofi suggests maybe I can use the video for our class. I politely tell him most of us are Christians (or former Christians) and are pretty familiar with the promises of the Bible. While these promises may bring some comfort and some can have confidence in reports of a man rising over 2,000 years ago and base their entire hope on that, when one loses a child, we often need more. Vague promises of a resurrection “some day” based on a resurrection that happened in a far away land recorded decades after the fact aren’t enough. But, the good news, is that we have evidence, lots and lots of evidence, from today. That’s what this course is about. Like Thomas had to put his fingers into the scars on Jesus’ resurrection body, we examine the evidence that has been laid out before us to not just believe but to know, that we will see our loved ones again. Even better, they have never left us. Whether these resurrected bodies will live on this physical Earth, we’ll leave to debate another day. But, yeah, Kofi. I’m with you brother. There is hope for the dead and given that we will all be “dead” someday, that means there is hope for us.
Kofi and I shake hands, I close the door and go back to work, looking forward to the next time he stops by and we can share with each other.
