English (United States) 
"Grief during the Pandemic" from the 2020 Summer Vision Newsletter
The following is a summary of For Your Journey Episode 82. If you’d like to watch this video with District Apostle Kolb, go to our YouTube channel, New Apostolic Church USA, and click on the For Your Journey playlist.
Grief is the sense of loss we can feel at different times in our lives; it is most pronounced with the loss of a loved one.
Faith can help us cope with grief; however, it never eliminates it because grief is a product of love. John 11 illustrates this in the account of Lazarus’ death. Jesus, as true Man, wept over his death. That momentary separation caused Him pain, even though He knew He had the power to bring Lazarus back to life.
As human beings, we experience emotions deeply. Thus, when someone passes away, a funeral or memorial service serves to help with the grieving process and give us closure. However, in the current circumstances, those services cannot happen in the customary ways.
As a way to adapt, a restricted funeral may be possible, while others might prefer to wait until regular services can resume. The uncertainty of when this might happen can also be unsettling.
It should be known that our belief in a funeral service, the body is returned to the earth and the soul is commended into the care of Christ – these words give us comfort as we are assured that the soul is in the hands of God. However, it is imperative to understand that in the moment of death, the almighty God has already acted and placed the soul and spirit into the realm in which they need to be, according to His will. The soul is never in an undetermined state until the funeral service can take place. God acts because He cares for and loves all souls. In addition, He understands our grief and will always comfort us.