Jump directly to the Content
Jump directly to the Content

Sermon Illustrations

Home > Sermon Illustrations

Mother Encourages Dying Son

Christian author Catherine Marshall reflects on what it's like to die in the fictional story of a 12-year-old boy named Kenneth. In the story Kenneth is suffering from an incurable illness. As he grows weaker and weaker, he begins to worry about what death will be like. At one point in the story, he turns to his mother and asks, "Mom, what is it like to die? Does it hurt?"

Caught off guard by the question, his mother is overcome with emotion. To gain composure, she dismisses herself to another room and then returns with an answer: "Kenneth, do you remember when you were younger—when you used to play so hard, you would be too tired to undress yourself, but just fell asleep in my bed? [In] the morning you would awake to find yourself in your own bed in your own room? Your father had come with his strong arms and carried you there. Death is like that. You will wake up to find yourself in your own room where you belong, because Jesus cared and carried you with his strong arms."

Related Sermon Illustrations

"Christians Never Say Goodbye"

Sheldon Vanauken was a student of the English professor and Christian apologist C. S. Lewis in the early 1950s. He recounts in his book A Severe Mercy the story of his last meeting ...

[Read More]

C.S. Lewis on the Wonder of Our Resurrected Bodies

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul emphasizes that we will be given new bodies. In his book The Great Divorce, a fictional look at Christian perceptions of life after death, C.S. Lewis imagines ...

[Read More]