These words are from Dallas Willard in his book Divine Conspiracy:
“So as we think of our life and make plans for it, we should not anticipate going through some terrible event called ‘death,’ to be avoided at all costs even though it can’t be avoided. But, immersed in Christ in action, we may be sure that our life–yes, the familiar one we are each so well acquainted with–will never stop. We should be anticipating what we will be doing, three hundred or a thousand or ten thousand years from now in this marvelous universe . . . . Of course something is going to happen. We will leave our present body at a certain point, and our going and what we leave behind will not seem pleasant to those who care for us. But we are at that point simply ‘absent from the body and present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8).’ . . . To those who remain behind there is an obvious, if superficial, similarity between the body of one who sleeps and that of one who has stepped into the full world. But there is no intention in this language to say we will be unconscious. Consciousness continues while we are asleep, and likewise when we ‘sleep in Jesus’ (I Thess. 4:14, Acts 7:60).”
Willard then goes on to describe two pictures for death:
“One was made famous by Peter Marshall some years ago. It is the picture of a child playing in the evening among her toys. Gradually she grows weary and lays her head down for a moment of rest, lazily continuing to play. The next thing she experiences or ‘tastes’ is the morning light of a new dewy day flooding the bed and the room where her mother or father took her. Interestingly, we never remember falling asleep. We do not ‘see it’ or ‘taste’ it.
Another picture is of one who walks to a doorway between rooms. While still interacting with those in the room she is leaving, she begins to see and converse with people in a room beyond., who may be totally concealed from those left behind. Before the widespread use of heavy sedation, it was quite common for those keeping watch to observe something like this. The one making the transition often begins to speak to those who have gone before. They come to meet us while we are still in touch with those left behind. The curtain parts for us briefly before we go through.”
pp. 86-87 from the Divine Conspiracy
I hope you find this comforting like I did.