The Father's sacrifice spares us from the power of death

This article is brought to you by the Kokomo Family YMCA. A change in location won’t stop our Winter Break Camp from being “snow” much fun! With school closed for the holidays, now is the perfect time to enroll your child. They will enjoy a fantastic mix of engaging indoor games and magical Christmas-themed activities. Hurry—spots fill up quickly! Don’t miss out on the fun—register here: https://operations.daxko.com/Online/5014/ProgramsV2/Home.mvc

I once heard a story about a father driving down the road with his young daughter in the passenger seat. She had a severe allergy to bees, the kind that could take her life within an hour if she were ever stung. As they were riding, a bee slipped into the car.

Immediately, it began buzzing aggressively around her. The daughter panicked, twisting and turning in her seat, terrified that the bee would land on her. But the father remained steady, calmly trying to trap the bee with his bare hand.

Even while he worked to catch it, she was inconsolable. Every movement of those tiny wings felt like a threat to her life. But then, at last, the father closed his hand around the bee. It buzzed violently inside his palm, fighting to get free. And suddenly the father winced.

“Ouch!”

The bee had stung him. He opened his hand and let the bee go. As soon as it took flight again, the daughter’s fear returned. She didn’t yet understand what her father had done.

The bee was now harmless. It could fly, it could buzz, it could frighten, but it could not sting. Her father had taken the danger into himself so she could live.

What the daughter didn’t realize is what many in the world still don’t fully grasp: Jesus did the same for us. On the cross, He took the sting out of death. Scripture says, “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). And Paul echoes it with triumphant clarity: “O death, where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55).

I was reminded of this truth by my dad at the funeral of my sweet grandmother Annie Barnett, who passed at the age of 84. She lived as an example of Jesus’ love, and even in her gentle decline, she showed us how to live and how to die with grace. She walked peacefully into the arms of Christ, fully confident that death held no power over her.

So, again, we declare: O death, where is your sting?