We met Cindy many years ago when we were thinking about putting our oldest, Alyssa, into the local Christian High School. She was the first one we met in the administration office. She was friendly and cheerful! She single-highhandedly sold us on sending our children there because of her joy. I'm sure she did this with many others.
I had the privilege of getting to know Cindy through the years and she continued being a joy for everyone to be around. She was easy to love and a bright light in this dark world. She died a few days ago after a short battle with pancreatic cancer. We all prayed and begged the Lord for healing yet He chose to take her home. When you think of it, however, all healing is temporary. All those the Lord healed while He walked this earth eventually died. We are all going to die. We all will meet our Maker one day. I grieved the last few weeks of her life because I was too ill to go over and hug Cindy and tell her I loved her when her family had a party for her last month. This grieving caused me to realize how differently we would all think about death and dying if we could just get a glimpse of heaven.
Do we really understand we are all strangers and aliens here? Do we realize that our time here is short but eternity is forever? Can we even imagine what the new heaven and new earth will look like when everything beautiful and awe-inspiring here on earth was created by God?
We were created to never die. When God created man in the garden, there was no sorrow, no sickness and no death. Life was perfect. Then sin entered the world; therefore death befell all of us. However, God promises us He is going to make a new heaven and earth. I will be with Cindy and all the other believers for eternity! I will see her again and have plenty of time to hug her and tell her I love her.
Her children, husband and all those who loved her will miss her. This is why death is so sad. The ones left behind have lost someone they deeply love and have an emptiness in their soul. Even Jesus wept at Lazarus' death because death is ugly and tragic; it brings mourning into our lives.
When asking about how different our lives on this earth would be if we could get a glimpse of heaven, one of the women in the chat room wrote, "This world is NOT our home, but so many of our heartaches come because we try so hard to be comfortable here! But we are strangers and aliens so it should be uncomfortable! And why are we wasting so much time trying to build our kingdoms here? I'm more excited about making all my decisions, words and actions be honoring to Christ {keeping my lamp lit} for when I see Him. And storing my treasure in heaven. It's nice to know that how I'm living now DOES matter! It makes going through hard times easier."
Could we say with the Apostle Paul, But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God {Acts 20:24}?
Paul saw a glimpse of heaven and this is why he didn't care if he lived or if he died. He knew his life was going to be SO much better when he died. If only we could understand this truth, yet it's so easy to make this life too important. Praise God that we will all get to see Cindy again and all our loved ones that are already with Jesus. His death on the cross has given us a hope and a future; an eternal future better than any of us can hope or even imagine.
See you in eternity, my precious friend!
See you in eternity, my precious friend!
