REUNION
This
past week has been a very bittersweet experience. While attending
the lecture series at Florida College, I heard many lessons from
God's word that pointed our attention to reaching out to a lost
world. We considered our responsibility to not only those who are
looking for Jesus and yet have been misguided in their pursuit by
false teaching, but we also considered those who do not believe in
God or His Son and the challenge we face to point them to heavenly
realms of which they consider to be a myth. We considered the
awesome responsibility in guiding our children to God's throne, as
well as the responsibility of preachers and elders and teachers in
our mission to be busy about the Father's business. Such a mission
is our most noble challenge in this life. That task is indeed an act
of love. It is often the process of reaching out to those who are
antagonistic to the truth and even to us who believe, with a view
toward making them our brothers and sisters in the family of God.
Another
highlight of that occasion was the opportunity to visit with many of
my brethren whom I had not seen for a while - even a few years. What
a joy to rekindle those ties of the heart that are otherwise
separated by long distances. It brings to mind that song that was
penned 222 years ago: "Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in
Christian love; The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that
above." Truly that gathering of brethren is one of jubilation.
Amid the laughter and camaraderie, there is the often interruption by
another brother or sister in Christ whom we have not seen in a long
time. Such reunions are an overflow of the blessings of the soul.
It is a foretaste of what heaven has to offer without the restraints
of time or distance or opportunity.
Amid
the joys associated with the reunion of many loved ones, there was
the sadness of another coming together to honor the passing of one of
our own and to comfort her grieving family. Janet Mobley passed from
this life in the early morning hours of this past Sunday, Feb. 1,
2004. Many of you probably did not know her, but I did. Looking
back almost fifty years, she and her good family are a part of my
earliest memories of what God's people are all about. She was a
mother not only to her own children, but to all of us kids who
assembled on Sunday morning with the church at Mahoney Street in
Plant City. It was there that I was baptized into Christ and formed
ties with God's people in that place; ties that would last not only a
life time, but for eternity. She and her family are some of those
ties that are bound up in happy memories, as I recall how much my
mother and she loved each other so much.
Jesus
spoke of those who choose to leave all in order to be His disciples.
Part of their reward is that we "...receive a hundredfold now in
this time - houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children
and lands, with persecutions - and in the age to come, eternal life."
(Mk. 10:30) Janet Mobley was one of those mothers who opened her
arms to her brethren and encouraged us to be faithful to the end,
just as she has now demonstrated.
Funerals
are not just about separation. They are about reunion. And while it
is an occasion where families come together to "weep with those
who weep," (Rom. 12:15) that's not the kind of reunion that
comes to mind. Rather, they are not only a reminder of the brevity
of our lives on this earth, but they are a reminder of a reunion of
eternal proportions in heaven.
When
Abraham died, it is said that he "...was gathered to his
people." (Gen. 25:8) This bespeaks of a reunion above with
those who precede us in death from here. That reunion is set before
us as a beacon of hope in the words of John's vision; "And I
heard a loud voice from heaven saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God
is with men,
and He will dwell with them,
and they
shall be His people,
and God Himself will be with them
and be their
God.'" (Rev. 21:3) Notice that God's people are going to be
gathered together
in His eternal presence. The separations of death will no longer be
an interruption of our fellowship. "And God will wipe away
every tear from their eyes; there
shall be no more death,
nor sorrow, nor crying; and there shall be no more pain, for the
former things have passed away." (Rev. 21:4) Heaven is a place
of eternal reunion with all
of the saved. "And the
nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light,
and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it."
(Rev. 21:24)
We
were made for eternity. We were made to live with God and one
another
forever and without end. It is with that thought in mind that we can
rejoice in Paul's words of hope and comfort. "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. For if we
believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God
will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
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. 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. 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.
Therefore comfort one another with these words." (1 Thess.
4:13-18)
Understanding
that we enjoy such an endless bond in Christ, and "Since you
have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in
sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure
heart" (1 Pet. 1:22) while we are here on this earth. Let us
treasure every moment that we spend together on this side of heaven's
gates. Let us look forward to every opportunity to assemble together
as God's people, "not forsaking the assembling of ourselves
together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so
much the more as you see the Day approaching." (Heb. 10:25) And
when it comes our time to part from this life, remember the words of
that song that closes with these words; "When we asunder part,
it gives us inward pain; But we shall still be joined in heart, and
hope to meet again."
-
Gary V. Womack - February 2004