Assurance of Faith through a Contemplation of Death

At the outset let me apologize for these seemingly morbid blog titles! Looking at them, I'm like, jeez. But I promise they are meant to be hopeful and I think they do lead us to hope in our immediate and eternal lives.
This past weekend Teresa and I attended a memorial service for her uncle who had passed that week. As I sat in the service and looked at old pictures, listened to hymns sung, and watched others respond, I was overcome with a sense of hope and assurance in my faith. I suddenly had no fear of death because it was apparent that death was not an end for me, or for those I love who are in Christ. There was certainly mourning for the temporal loss of a loved one and for those whom he left behind, but i realized that a healthy contemplation of death and my own mortality actually produced an amazing assurance of faith. When we contemplate death we remember how our old self has been put to death on the cross and we have new life (Col. 2:12). When we meditate on our end we realize that we have been made for more and God has a grander plan and destination for us. Eternal life and salvation from sin seems more amazing to us when we wrap our minds around the reality of death. Therefore, we can see how such a healthy contemplation of death can produce an assurance of faith.
When we do so I think we attain to a closer and more vibrant understanding of Paul's statement in Philippians 1:21, "For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."