The best day ever!

The Best Day Ever …?  Ephesians 2.4-6

Hello. 

So my just-about-18-year-old son is back in the water.  

Yup, after spending years devoted to the sport of soccer, from the unique viewpoint of the goalkeeper, he has hung up his cleats.  Never mind that he has two CIF rings and could have played in college, he is ‘over it’, as the teenagers say.  Yup, he has picked up his bodyboard and gone back to tackling the waves at various beaches in Southern California. As a result, I found a tag from a pair of trunks lying on the counter—it pictured the silhouettes of several young people at the beach at sunset, with lazy waves making their way to shore in the background.  Underneath the picture was the caption “. . . best day ever”.

Moving the tag a number of times, I kept thinking about the caption—“Best Day Ever” … hmmm, what would the ‘best day ever’ look like?  I googled it and after six pages of offerings, discovered I would have to choose between Sponge Bob Square Pants and some foul-mouthed rapper to define the ‘best day ever’.  Ridiculous.  Somehow, I pray that after this Morning Briefing hits the internet, it might make its way into the offerings—has happened before.  I submit to you that 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.  This last Sunday, my brother (in Christ), Joe, had his best day ever. 

Here’s the thing—because of how Joe had chosen 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 this 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.’¹  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 this last Friday morning, and then slipped a little further away almost hourly until his new day dawned in Heaven on Sunday.  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.”² 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.  Ephesians 2.4-6 (Philips)  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.”³

'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.”'⁴  Then we will not define our best day ever by Sponge Bob’s standards, but by those of eternity.  Because surely 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.

CHRISTINE

PastorWoman.com

1 – CS Lewis, God in the Dock

^{2 – Alan Sach}

^{3 – CS Lewis, God in the Dock}

^{4 – Psalm 90.12}