George Amonoo Supporter Former Missionary of The Church of Pentecost in Botswana.

The loss of a sibling to death is a very terrifying experience to go through. Knowing how close family ties are and the fact that you grow up in the same home environment, makes it even more traumatizing. Sibling love is the most extraordinary of all relationships. A sibling is a person with whom you live throughout your childhood. Unlike a friend or a lover or a spouse, you do not choose a sibling based on attraction or affinity. Unlike a parent, or at least a good parent, a sibling has usually not been devoted to your care and seeing you flourish. A sibling is a person with whom you must compete for resources. A person with whom others will readily compare you: who is the best-looking, who is the smartest, etc. Yet siblings, on the whole, remain in touch and fond of one another into adulthood. 

Losing a sibling to death, especially during youthful times can be very painful. It is like part of you has gone-gone forever. Yet like all other close family losses, e.g. parental, cousins or close friends, surviving siblings must brace themselves to the reality of death at some point in time. The Bible book of Ecclesiastes says: There is a time for everything…. A time to be born and a time to die, …A time to embrace, and a time to say goodbye Eccle.3:1,2,5b.

For those who are Christian believers, we have this wonderful hope in Christ Jesus to be reunited with the believing sibling once gain in heaven. 

1 Thess. 4:13-16 says: “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.”

October 23 2015 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report