Peter, Tabitha and death (why Peter faced his own death calmly)

Acts 9.31-43

There is something very gripping, awesome, melancholy and sometimes frightening about being at the bedside of someone when they die. I've been in that situation a couple of thousand times...it is still the most mystifying and humbling experience I know.

What do we "know" about death? Very little, actually. The Apostle Paul said that we 'look as through a glass darkly.'

Trying to glimpse beyond death is far more difficult than trying to peer into a limo that has very dark windows.

There are many people who have clinically died and then come back to life. The stories of those people are very interesting and inspiring, but not really very instructive.

We are left to draw our ideas of what is beyond death from our faith...our hope for evidence not seen of something more beyond our current human frailty.

When Peter was in that upper room, shut in with the dead body of Tabitha, he evidently came into contact with the Giver of Life.

I would suppose that once you have had that kind of experience with the One who holds life in His hands - to have met with Him and witness Him extending life back into the body that was dead, one would no longer fear death.

Peter knew from his experiences that death was no more than a shadow. He knew that there were those who could take life from the body - but he knew the One who was the Giver of Life and the Keeper of Life eternal.

There is nothing to fear.