Welcome to today's encouragement from our daily bread. I've entitled today's reading,

Hope in Grief. My name's Bill Crowder. As the cabby drove us to London's Heathrow Airport,

he told us his story. He had come alone to the United Kingdom at age 15, seeking to escape war and deprivation.

Now, 11 years later, he has a family of his own and is able to provide for them in ways unavailable in his native land.

But he laments that he's still separated from his parents and his siblings.

He told us that he's had a hard journey that won't be complete until he's reunited with his

family. Being separated from our loved ones in this life is hard, but losing a loved one in death

is much harder and creates a sense of loss that

won't be made right until we're reunited with them. When the new believers at Thessalonica

wondered about such losses, Paul wrote, Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be

uninformed about those who sleep in death so that you do not

grieve like the rest of mankind who have no hope. He explained that as believers in Jesus,

we can live in expectation of a wonderful reunion together, forever, in the presence of Christ.

Few experiences Marcus as deeply as the separations we endure,

but in Jesus we have hope of being reunited,

and in the midst of grief and loss,

we can find the comfort we need in that enduring promise.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from 1st Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 13 through 18.

Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death,

so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind who have no hope.

For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen

asleep in Him. According to the Lord's word, we tell you that we who are still alive,

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