Luke 8:52-53. "And all were weeping and bewailing her; but he said, 'Don't weep, for she is not dead but sleeping.' And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead."

I am coming to realize that so many of our perceptions and definitions of reality are weirdly both right and wrong. Right in the sense that they reflect true reality (unless we are being led astray), but wrong in the sense that the reality they reflect is so much greater than we can understand.

In this case, the girl is dead. When Jesus raises her, "her spirit return[s]" (Luke 8:55), so her spirit had left her body which is one way we define death. The mourners know that she is dead, and they are correct. But Jesus says she is not dead, only sleeping, and He is more correct than we can ever be. Even if the girl was not raised by Jesus, she would still be "only sleeping" from God's point of view. Her spirit has left her body, but at some point the two will be reunited and she will live forever, just as we all will. So God defines death differently than we do. Being "dead" to God is being separated from Him for all eternity, it is us choosing hell. 

The two perceptions of life and death, earthly and eternal, are so closely analogous while we live on earth that they are often confused. Jesus hates earthly death, but He knows it is a reality, one God never intended for us, but that we brought on ourselves. Jesus' primary concern, therefore, is our eternal life - God's plan for us to live forever with Him. He desperately wants not one of us to experience true death, or hell. When Jesus talks about death and life, He is speaking from a place of hyper-reality beyond our comprehension.

When we perceive a difference between what God is telling us and how we define reality, we should try to understand what God is saying, rather than dismiss or laugh at Him (or His Church, through whom He speaks). Only God understands all, so if He tells us something, it is true; His every word to us is revelation of truth. Because He is all love, that truth is always hopeful, even if sometimes difficult to understand or live by.

We are the only fallible ones in this relationship. If God says something we think is wrong, we can be assured it is not Him, it is us, and we should try to expand our minds and understanding to grasp what He is trying to reveal to us. It is always Good News!