Death is a part of the plan of our Heavenly Father

Recently, I heard a sermon where the pastor said that he didn't think death was part of God's plan. That it was something that happened contrary to His plan. In my mind, I was thinking, "Did he just say that God's plan is flawed? Or that God doesn't expect death to happen?"  A scripture from the Book of Mormon popped into my head, Alma 12:24 "And thus we see that death comes upon mankind, yea, the death which has been spoken of by Amulek, which is the temporal death..."

The way I understand it is that death IS a part of God's plan.  We come to earth in flawed, mortal bodies, prove to Him that we're doing our best to follow Him, and we have to die to get out of these bodies so we can be resurrected.  THEN our bodies will be made perfect and immortal, like our Father in Heaven.  In Romans 8:16-17, it says that we're children of God, and as such, capable of being "joint heirs with Christ." We can receive EVERYTHING that Christ has received, but we have to wait until we receive our perfect bodies. We can live in celestial glory with our Father in Heaven and be a part of his family forever. Yay!  Death is really a good thing in the grand scheme of things.

But for those of us stuck on earth, death just stinks!  

This situation, especially, was an unexpected tragedy. It is painful for those of us left to pick up the pieces. It makes it so much easier to deal with the pain when we know that it's only a step in the eternal scheme, that we'll be reunited with that person (and others who have gone before), and that the reunion will be glorious. God planned for us to be born, prove ourselves, and die so He could give us a perfected body someday.  So we could be heirs to all that He has. We just have to have faith and be patient for that day.

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