Making sense ~ maybe not until it is all said and done

Making sense ~ maybe not until it is all said and done.

Curious?  Are you driven to know answers to things that have happened like--

~why did your parents have to die at ages where your children will never   

   know what it is like to have grandparents in their lives?

  ~why were you passed over, when you had the right to expect you

         would be promoted, but instead someone else got the nod?

    ~why does your child have to battle Attention Deficit problems and worse,

          things that often torture him and others who are around him?

       ~why did your father abandon the family when you were young?

        ~why did you have to lose your job at such a vulnerable time in your life,

           a really bad time in the world’s economy?

          ~why was your son or daughter tragically taken from your life?  Why?

            ~why haven’t you met someone to marry and grow old with?

              Why? Why?  Why?  We all have why questions, some of which haunt us more than the guy next to us.  Sometimes we get answers to these questions this side of eternity, sometimes we do not; but one day, I believe God will set all things aright.  As Paul wrote in the great chapter of love, “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.”¹

See, one day we will see Jesus face to face, and all will be known then; I look forward to that day.  Do you?  Yes?  No? Maybe.  Hmmm … You do if you are certain of your destination, if you trust Jesus as the leader of your life.  So, what will it be like—that day, I mean?  Wish we could interview some folks on the other side about it, but since we can’t … we sometimes get a hint from those who are about to pass over to glory.  Take my friend Joe.

Because of how Joe chose to live, how he died was sweet… really.  Joe was a man filled with Christian faith for many years, so when physicians diagnosed him first with liver and then pancreatic cancer in late fall, it just became a transitional phase for him.  Oh sure, because of his great love for his wife and two sons, he was sad, but resolute—his faith in the goodness of God never wavered.  There were the usual treatment options, but mostly, Joe chose to trust God and spend great time with his family, and doing the things he loved to do as long as he could.  It has been said, ‘you will never know how much you believe something until it is a matter of life and death.’² Apparently, Joe’s faith was stronger than folks might have guessed.

God answered many prayers on behalf of Joe, and his decline was gentle and merciful.  He was able to communicate until his last two days, and then slipped a little further away almost hourly until his new day dawned in Heaven.  While he clutched a hand-sized wooden cross, his sons read Scripture, his wife cuddled and reassured him.  They prayed, cried some, and played his beloved Irish music as well; and they were right there when life flooded through his body one last time, and then was gone.  Then, sons and mother prayed The Lord’s Prayer together and I received a text message that said, “Dad is home now.”  

The fact is, “Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives.”³ Joe really lived… and though Joe’s body died, he lives on with his Lord.  We were created for life; it is our sins that rob us of it.  Consider with me Paul’s words about death, life, and sin:  “But even though we were dead in our sins God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, gave us life together with Christ—it is, remember, by grace and not by achievement that you are saved—and has lifted us right out of the old life to take our place with him in Christ in the Heavens.”⁴   Amen.

You might have to read this twice, but it is worth it:  “The people who keep asking if they can't lead a decent life without Christ, don't know what life is about; if they did they would know that 'a decent life' is mere machinery compared with the thing we men are really made for.”⁵  Oh, yes.

'O God, as the psalmist prayed, “Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as we should.”'⁶ The ‘best day ever’ is the day we see the Lord’s face—the day we draw our last breath on earth and our first in Heaven.  Then all will be set aright.

^{1 – 1 Corinthians 13.12;   2 – CS Lewis, God in the Dock;  3 – Alan Sach; 4 – Ephesians 2.4-6 (Philips)}  

^{5 - CS Lewis, God in the Dock;  6 – Psalm 90.12}