Words of comfort
1 Thess 4:13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
A few things: 1st. Those who sleep are those believers whom pass on or die. The believer never truly dies, he just enters his eternity with the LORD. To be absent from the body is to be present with the LORD. 2nd. If we are alive at Christ' appearing, rapture of His church, we cant nor wont proceed those whom already passed simply because they are with Jesus. We meet Jesus and His saints in the air. 3rd. Believers in Christ will never lose their reward.
So this should bring comfort to those who struggle over the whole death stuff.