Let the Party Begin!

I spent the better part of the afternoon with two of my very dear friends, June and Bill Martin, who are now retired and live in Greenwood, SC with their daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren. We go back a very long way--over 25 years! Unfortunately, their visit with me was not what you might think; June's mother, Robina Revell, died the other night and they were with me to plan her graveside service, which will be held tomorrow at 2:00 at Macon Memorial Park, a perpetual care cemetery here in Macon. As you might imagine, I will be the "minister in charge!" I never have been quite sure what that term means but I do know that it does mean at least this: I will be in charge of finding words of comfort for these precious friends, as well as finding words of celebration, as we celebrate Robina's life and her homegoing. To be honest, I do not anticipate that being very difficult because these folk know and love the Lord; all I will have to do is lift out a few passages of Scripture and the rest will, well it will just happen. Immediately, several are already coming to my mind, so I am eagerly anticipating what He will do, how He will manifest Himself in our lives at this "place of death."

Acutally, for the elect of God, a gravesite is really not a place of death; instead, it is resurrection ground! (I only wish we could keep that in mind!) Jesus has promised to return for His Bride (actually, I thought it would have been long before now!)and He will do so--you count on that! Anyway, because He made this promise, this apparent "place of death" is actually a place of resurrection! There will be that final day, when God Himself descends from Heaven with the voice of the archangel, the trumpet of God will sound, and the dead in Christ (the "Robinas" who have gone before the rest of us) will rise first, then we which are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord(You can find that in 1Thessalonians, if you care to look)!In other words, when we gather tomorrow at Robina's gravesite, the place where the remains of her physical body will be buried, we will be standing on the same kind of ground upon which Mary Magdalene stood the morning of Jesus resurrection!!

You think about this for a minute: On that incredible morning, everyone, including the devil and all the demons of hell, were convinced that Jesus was dead. The devil was convinced that he had won over good and Jesus' followers were convinced that they had made a bad mistake in following Him. His "borrowed tomb" was for His followers, indeed, a place of death!Then there was Mary! She loved Him and He loved her--make no mistake about it! You remember the story; she approached the tomb about the time that Jesus stepped outside it, thinking that He was a gardner. "Please, sir," she begged, "if you know where they have taken Him, please tell me." Now remember: she was standing on what she thought was burial ground; however, she was mistaken--very mistaken! This supposed gardner replied with a single but all-powerful word: "Mary!" Wow!! Can you imagine that moment? "Raboni," she exclaimed! And they embraced!!

Listen, this IS going to be repeated but this time it will be the likes of you and me, who come forth from our grave! Oh, I am sure there are many skeptics, who believe that what I am writing is a "bunch of bunk" but who cares what they believe? They will be just as surprised as the devil and all the demons of hell were surprised on that first resurrection morning!

Robina has lived with Bill & June for the past 18 years, during which time, they have been her caretakers and her providers. I do not know whether you know it or not but carrying out this kind of responsibility is no easy task, even if it does involve your own mother. It has it own unique ways of sapping one's emotional energy, not to mention physical and mental energy. Toward the end, Robina suffered the ravages of pancreatic cancer, which is a merciless killer. Her body wasted away until it could no longer deal with the suffering and just at the right time, God took her HOME!! Wow!! No longer suffering, no longer having to put up with a worn out earthsuit! At home in her home, home!!

That is right: she is already in Heaven and seated at God's right hand in the Most Holy Place, which in my humble opinion ain't too bad a place to wake up to, from having had to deal with pancreatic cancer!

Now, listen up: this does not preclude her resurrection!! Somehow (and because I am NOT God, I do not understand how), somewhere on down the road, God is going to glorify her worn out earthsuit, and her spirit that is now in Heaven will be united with it and, well, LET THE PARTY BEGIN!!

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!!