For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:16

I have come that they may have life,
and that they may have it more abundantly.
John 10:10

I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep,
and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me,
even so I know the Father, and I lay down My life for the sheep.
John 10: 14-15

I am the resurrection and the life.
He who believes in Me,
though he may die, he shall live.
And whoever lives and believes in Me
shall never die.
John 11:25-26

In My Father’s house are many mansions …
I go to prepare a place for you….
I will come again and receive you to Myself;
that where I am, there you may be also.
John 14:2-3

And I will pray to the Father
and He will give you another Helper,
That He may abide with you forever…
John 14:16

If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word;
and My Father will love him,
and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
John 14: 23

I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.
And now, O Father, glorify Me, together with Yourself,
with the glory which I had with you before the world was.
John 17: 4-5

Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me
may be with Me where I am,
that they may behold My glory which You have given Me;
for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
John 17: 24

* * *

I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. John 14:18
That particular verse has always struck deep in the heart of me. In fact, I think that a good part of the fear of death is the idea that we will be by ourselves, alone, in a great dark universe of no-thing-ness.

All great religions have an aspect of God who returns to help his brothers and sisters, who postpones his or her own glory for the sake of others, who prepares a place where they will all be together. For Christians it is Jesus the Christ.

The Easter message tells us that we are more than these bodies we wear, that we are beings of light. Death marks the end of temporary not the eternal; that we are not and never will be alone. The Bodhisattva, the Beloved of God, does not go on to greater glory or higher consciousness and forget those of us who are here still struggling and suffering.

The Easter message is one of brotherhood, of the Light that never goes out, the door that is always open, the home at the end of our journey where our dear ones wait .