It has been a week since I left the very beautiful confines of Glen Eyrie and have reentered life back home. My heart has been overflowing, and while I have been able to begin to mull over what I have tucked away in my heart, I have found for the most part, that I hit the tarmac running. All good - but running never the less. So it has been, that I have begun to mull over the thoughts that have bubbled out and begun to run over. And it is good. While we were there - we were given the gift of Monday night, when we watched Anthony Lawton do a 90 minute dramatization of C.S.Lewis' "The Great Divorce" .... I guess it got me thinking about Heaven. Many thoughts ...
One of those thoughts lately, since Next Step school of spiritual direction - have focused around the thought that Dr. Crabb (Larry to us :) said. It was not a new thought, but one that struck me deeply. He said "Never forget - the best is yet to come..... In the twinkling of an eye..."
Dr. Crabb said that the "Second Coming" seems to be de-emphasized .... that he grew up with it (he was raised Plymouth Brethren like I was) and I remember hearing my father speak on the Second Coming with a quiver in his voice. He loved to study the last book of the Bible - Revelation.
The interesting thing is, as I had been working through reading the Bible, and had read the 1st, 2nd, 3rd John and 1st and 2nd Peter ... I mentioned the same thing to Alvin - and asked him when was the last time he had heard a sermon on the Second Coming.
I remember in my teens, the movie "A Thief in the Night" came out. I remember watching it at Faith Bible Camp and being shaken - and wanted to make sure that I was ready if the Lord came. I was never a kid that got into too much trouble, but the teen years really were years that cemented my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It had become "more" my own than when I gave my heart to Jesus at the age of 8. Life does that - we grow up and our faith is cemented for us. Our life experience grows - along with our faith. Or at least it should.
I have come to see that we really do live in the temporal - we love deeply - we live life to the fullest - we value family and friends and church and work. It is good. Very very good. And we hate to see the reality of our existence - that we are really just passing through to eternity. I know that I think often about heaven - especially since the deaths of my parents, and in-laws, and especially when our little grandson went to Heaven before we got a chance to know him .... not to mention other family and friends that I have loved deeply. So I feel like Heaven does not hold a scariness that others perhaps feel. (or at least I can say that now, as I am not facing any life and death situations.)
I know that I love what I am doing - and love all that God has made me to be - and I am learning more and more about embracing life. BUT as Larry said - NEVER FORGET THE BEST IS YET TO COME!! It makes me stop, and say, YES ... the best really IS yet to come!
So, I will go on about my every day life. I want to be living fully in the hear and now - embracing life with Jesus and loving it - my husband, my kids, my grandkids, my extended family and friends. I want to live a life of purpose - that will bring honor and glory to Jesus Christ. I want to make a difference in the life of someone else. But I also want to live with my hands upturned and open - so that I am not clutching onto things but instead live open handed and ready. I love this life - I am not going to lie. But I can't help but wonder about life with Christ - and that excites me when I think of the best is still to come!! YES. Dr. Larry Crabb, thanks for the reminder!!
1 Corinthians 15:52
New Living Translation (NLT)
52 It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed.
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