I told a friend today that after Jesus himself (of course), I think I may be most looking forward to meeting the Apostle John in heaven.
Do you ever think about that? Think about all the people you'll meet in heaven that you didn't cross paths with on Earth? Whom would you put on your list?
There are people who've gone before me that I long to see again. Mary Sue, taken from this world at age 29. I still taste the bitterness of her loss, and think of Jesus "weeping" (or, more like, snorting with overwhelming emotion) at the site of Lazarus' tomb, even though he knew he would raise him. That's how offensive Mary Sue's death was to me. Clearly wrong. Not the way it ought to be. I want to see family members who are there. I want to see Arthur Matthews, and talk again about important things. I want to meet my four children whom I didn't get to hold and raise here, know them instantly as peers.
But all of those already touched my life personally. I am looking forward to meeting The Beloved Disciple. I have a feeling he and I will just "get" each other... We share the same sort of deep-feeling, relational, physical approach to life and observation and communication. We both find the unusual and unconventional noteworthy in the impact of its symbolism. I imagine him to have been a bit effervescent even before the Christ ignited him with epignosis. I wonder how much more so he is on the "completed and mature" side of life.
But I also look forward to meeting Charles Spurgeon, and knowing his melancholy is wiped away for eternity. I want to meet Jill Brinkerhoff, who lives in my heart because of the family legacy she left, even though I never met her. I look forward to meeting my pastor's father. He lives larger than life in the stories I've heard about his extension of grace to others.
Who do you look forward to meeting, and why? When you never have to say, "Time's up, gotta go," won't it be something wonderful to linger with the eternal family?
Do you ever think about that? Think about all the people you'll meet in heaven that you didn't cross paths with on Earth? Whom would you put on your list?
There are people who've gone before me that I long to see again. Mary Sue, taken from this world at age 29. I still taste the bitterness of her loss, and think of Jesus "weeping" (or, more like, snorting with overwhelming emotion) at the site of Lazarus' tomb, even though he knew he would raise him. That's how offensive Mary Sue's death was to me. Clearly wrong. Not the way it ought to be. I want to see family members who are there. I want to see Arthur Matthews, and talk again about important things. I want to meet my four children whom I didn't get to hold and raise here, know them instantly as peers.
But all of those already touched my life personally. I am looking forward to meeting The Beloved Disciple. I have a feeling he and I will just "get" each other... We share the same sort of deep-feeling, relational, physical approach to life and observation and communication. We both find the unusual and unconventional noteworthy in the impact of its symbolism. I imagine him to have been a bit effervescent even before the Christ ignited him with epignosis. I wonder how much more so he is on the "completed and mature" side of life.
But I also look forward to meeting Charles Spurgeon, and knowing his melancholy is wiped away for eternity. I want to meet Jill Brinkerhoff, who lives in my heart because of the family legacy she left, even though I never met her. I look forward to meeting my pastor's father. He lives larger than life in the stories I've heard about his extension of grace to others.
Who do you look forward to meeting, and why? When you never have to say, "Time's up, gotta go," won't it be something wonderful to linger with the eternal family?
7 comments:
Not intending to be narcissistic but I would like to know who I am in Christ, fully and completely. That's mostly who I want to meet.
Good morning, MacoMan.
Your comment actually made me realize how narcissistic I am--not because I had that thought, exactly, but because I didn't.
I'm sure the most personally impactful "meeting" will be realizing my maturity--especially if it is contrasted with just how great that conversion completion is. Only by trusting that he will bring that to completion can I even bear the thought of knowing the contrast.
This morning, however, I was talking to him about that, though not thinking of it in this way of "meeting" myself as he knows me now, positionally speaking. I've taken too much to heart lately the opinions of men and women who don't understand as much as they think they do, and would rather change (they'd say "fix") me than try to understand a long history I'm not even at liberty to share with them--because it would mean being disrespectful of another or others. I am learning, though, that I don't have to always set the record straight where the opinions of my brothers and sisters are wrong or only partially right. God will do that in his time if it is even important anymore. However, I was longing for the day when at least what he sees as a pearl, the parts of me he did do on purpose by design will be visible, enhanced, made complete as he has from the beginning knew he would bring me to be. So yes, I'd like to meet her too.
"Fixing" others is prima facie evidence of a foolish disposition of self worth - not biblically derived.
We will fully realize, recognize and appreciate others only after we have become fully who we are in Jesus - when we become like Him, the moment we see Him. After that, hey, look around. The depth of relationships will all center in Him, and we will see even as we are seen.
And that's precisely the reason I don't have any "fixes" for anyone.
*known
Thank you for not fixing my terrible grammatical error too! Ha! I took a phone call right as I was typing that last comment, which ended up being a monster of a couple of run-on sentences and terrible word choices. Thank you, gracious sir, for enduring through it and even following up with a response that is affirming and encouraging, once again.
Oh yea, one more thing: when you do "meet her" you will have a compelling joy of eternal and unsurpassed depth, length, breadth, and width.
It's neat. Every now and then, He lets us catch a micro-second glimpse of that full joy, and that alone is enough to last for days and weeks and months. But to actually LIVE in it...well, that's the rest of His story to be lived out in us forever.
I remember the joy of new faith, and the joy of that sense of something very new and very pure and very real developing inside me. I can only say it must have been the Holy Spirit. But my optimism and zeal and effervescence wasn't ready for the effects of the real world. I went from being a savvy, street-smart young adult (college aged) woman to a very naive and exuberant Christian woman. Then I got flattened. I expected everyone around me to feel it and live it too. And when they didn't, honestly, I think I began to doubt the promise of eternity. I'm way too much an "already" person in the "not yet" world, and that crushed a lot of that naivete, which to me, was just zealous innocence renewed.
But I remember that joy, and if it can even be fuller and deeper and broader than what I remember back then, then oh, what a story there is to be told and LIVED. Yes, lived, forever. What a day of rejoicing that will be!
You may want to "friend" this, but take a look anyways even if you are not into this sort of thing. Sometimes the quotes are pithy, and if not, at the very least, applicable.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/John-Calvin-Quotes/183121498460037
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