We have a number of euphemisms for death.
Pass on.
Kick the bucket.
Buy the farm.
Cross over.
Be in a better place.
Go home.
One that you don’t hear much in Western culture is “to be gathered to your people.” This is a more ancient, Hebrew way of talking about death, found all throughout the Old Testament.
More than being a nice sentiment, or a way of soft-pedaling grief, what if there’s actually something to this? What if this is another angle on what future theologians would call “the communion of the saints”? What if this is another way of affirming the Christian hope of resurrection?
I would suggest that our ultimate destiny in Christ is not to exist forever A) as disembodied spirits; nor B) surrounded by a bunch of saintly strangers; but rather C) as re-enlivened bodies living in physical proximity to and in perfect relationship with “our people.” Me to my people. You to your people. The neighbor down the block to her people. This paints death, and whatever comes after, in quite a different light, doesn’t it?
In the end, I look forward to being gathered to my people.
(See Numbers 27:12-14).