Are You Anxious to Get to Heaven?

September 3, 2023
 
Reflection from the Heart of Allan Redenius
Not too long ago, I heard an elderly man say, “Everyone I know is in the cemetery.”  I laughed.  But then, I suddenly realized I know a lot of people in the cemetery too.  It happens as you get older.
 
I remember when I was forty, there was a shirt with this saying imprinted on it.  “40 isn’t old—if you’re a tree.”  Now I’m older than a lot of trees.  Ouch….
 
But like I was told at a recent birthday, “You either keep having birthdays, or you don’t.”  Only an older person could give you words of wisdom like that.
 
So I’ve been thinking about dying lately.  Here’s just some of my idle thoughts:

• Dying is like turning off the light switch.  One moment there is light, the next, darkness.  But it’s not turning off the switch that’s hard.  It’s the walk over to the switch that’s difficult;
• We say, “Rest in peace.”  Though our souls go to heaven at our last breath, the body will rest in the grave until resurrection day.  I believe that day will come like the morning dawn after a night of sleep.  Whether in the grave 1,000 years or for only a short stay, time will be ever so short, just like a night of sleep;
• Even though survivors mourn for those who have died, the dead in Christ rejoice in heaven;
• God promises a heavenly reward to the believer.  “In My Father’s house are many mansions.”  So, as believers in Jesus, we should be anxious to get to heaven.  But then, God stuffed this thing in us called, self-preservation.  Like my Dad said at the last.  “Everyone wants to live one more day.”  He closed that thought with this.  “But if that’s the road God has chosen for me, I’ll walk it.”

 
So here’s my daily prayer.  “Lord, let me live one more day, just to worship and glorify Jesus tomorrow.”
 
AMEN,
Pastor Allan
 
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