I’m feeling sad this morning, thinking about all precious people who are no longer in our earthly lives, physically. I miss so many people. It's never easy to say goodbye! The hardest task in this world is to place a final kiss on lips that cannot kiss you back. It's even harder to walk away and leave your loved-one, knowing you will never to see them in this life again. It all seems so final! One of the sad things about this world is the fact that people we love die, leaving us to grieve. The Bible says, “Each person is destined to die…” and “Seventy years are given to us! Some even live to eighty. But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we fly away” (Hebrews 9:27; Psalm 90:10 New Living Translation). I was the tenth child of ten. Now I am the only one still living. It is so sad to see families simply go away. Oh, I know there is always hope that we see them again, if we know Jesus as Savior and Lord, but it doesn’t mean we that we will not miss them dearly! "Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our Great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). "…There is “hope…laid up for (us) in heaven…" (Colossians 1:5).
Let my tell you about Heaven, my hope and my future home, and yours if you know Jesus as Savior and Lord. “But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him’” (1 Corinthians 2:9). When I think of a wonderful world where there will be no reason to cry, “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes…” I get a little homesick! When I think of a world where no one dies, “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying…” When I think of a world where pain will be no more, “There shall be no more pain,” When I think of a world where God makes everything brand new… “for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4). I’m just a little homesick for my heavenly home!
John Jasper, pastor of Sixth Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia, said he had a dream that he went to heaven, when asked if he wanted to see Moses and several other Bible dignitaries, he said, “yes, but first I want to see my Jesus.” I want to hear the voice that pronounced my deliverance, I want to touch the hands that knocked off my shackles. The same hands that created the heavens and the earth will touch my cheek. The same hands that formed the mountains and valleys will caress me. Those hands that were so cruelly bruised and bloodied by the Roman spikes will someday cup my face and brush away every tear.
Someday, I will shed this frail human form for my glorified body, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body…” (Philippians 3:20,21). “Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies” (1 Corinthians 15:42-44).
“Does Jesus care when I’ve said ‘goodbye’
to the to the dearest on earth to me,
And my sad heart aches till it nearly breaks–
is it aught to Him, does He see?
Oh, yes, He cares, I know He cares,
His heart is touched with my grief,
When the days are weary, the long nights dreary,
I know my Savior cares.”
(Frank E. Graeff, 1901)
