Matthew 28:20: Jesus says, “And behold, I am with you always until the end of the age.”
It has been said each person must face death in his own way alone. At your death you may face a frightening loneliness, for who can accompany you through the passage way of death? Who can share your feelings and understand what it is like to die? What is more, you are about to leave your loved ones with whom you have spent your life.
Jesus’ promise to be with you can ward off these lonely feelings. He promises he will never leave you alone. He will remain at your side. He knows your feelings and what it is like to die, because he himself died and rose again. When he died on the cross, he was utterly alone. Everyone had forsaken him, even his heavenly Father, which caused him to cry out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) In Psalm 69:20 Jesus said: “Reproach has broken my heart, so I am deathly sick; And I hoped for sympathy, but there was none; And for comforters, but I found none.” Having experienced loneliness at death himself, he can sympathize with your lonely feelings.
By faith you can call on him to help you through the ordeal night or day. Listen to the comfort and confidence Psalm 121 gives us: “I will lift up my eyes to the mountains – From where does my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth. 3 He will not allow your foot to totter; He who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, he who keeps Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; The Lord is your shade on your right hand. 6 The sun will not smite you by day, Nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord will keep you from all evil; He will keep your soul. 8 The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in From this time now and forevermore.”
You need not feel alone at death. Not only is the Lord at your side, his guardian angels watch over you during those dark moments up to and through your death. Our Lord assures us in Hebrews 1:14: “Are not all angels ministering spirits, who are sent out into service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?” Psalm 91:11, 12 further comforts us by telling us: “For he will command his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. They will lift you up in the palms of their hands, so you will not strike your foot against a stone.”
At your death the Lord’s angels are present to guard you. I have heard of instances when a Christian, being close to death, reached out towards an invisible someone whom he was seeing, or even spoke the words, “Look, an angel!” Our Lord permits his Christians to see their guardian angels to strengthen their faith and hope.
The angels are with you in those dark moments, waiting to carry you on their wings to your heavenly home, as Jesus said they carried poor Lazarus to Abraham’s bosom. Luther so touchingly stated that if it were not for his guardian angels, he would be afraid to die, for upon his death he would surely become lost. He would not know what the way to heaven was, and would end up in the wrong place. He praised God for his angels, who would take him by the hand to show him the way to heaven. These are your guardians and guides through death as well. Thus you have no reason to be afraid or feel alone.