WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2023 “THAT’S LIFE”???

 WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2023 “THAT’S LIFE”??? WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2023 “THAT’S LIFE”???

A great friend died two days ago of cancer. An ugly, vile, disease.  

If you’ve read these blogs before, you know I write from a Judeo-Christian viewpoint. I’m thinking of my friend this morning, but I’m also thinking of life in general.

From the OldTestament - Job 1:21:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,

    and naked I will depart.

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;

    may the name of the Lord be praised.”

We are born, we live, we die - “May the name of the Lord be praised”.

I’m also thinking of an old hymn - “This world is not my home”

This world is not my home

I'm just a-passing through

My treasures are laid up

Somewhere beyond the blue

The angels beckon me

From heaven's open door

And I can't feel at home

In this world anymore

I’ve been writing that astronomers estimate there are about 8 trillion galaxies (8,000,000,000,000) and that there are (maybe) millions of stars in each of those galaxies, and (maybe) planets circling around those stars.  Does God know each of those galaxies, each of those stars, each of those planets, and every single living thing on those planets (if there is life)?  Sure He/She/It/The Force/Ahh/The Divine knows every single living thing.  

We are born, we live, we die - “May the name of the Lord be praised”.

(A friend suggested that I write about death too much.  That is true.  I’m closer to death than I am to birth.  It’s been ten years since I held my grandchildren and cried happy tears. I was trying to remember holding anybody’s baby - it's been a while!!)

John 14:2-4 says

My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me so that you also may be where I am.  You know the way to the place where I am going

Jesus said those words in his last week of life (I’m pretty sure he didn’t actually say “those” words.  It said something in Aramaic or some other language that got translated to English).

Jesus is going to prepare a place for us.  And, he will come back and take us there.  I don’t know the sequence, the timing, but I know the promise - he is coming back and taking us with him.

I don’t know what that place looks like - but if the second person of the Trinity says He is going to prepare a place for us, it was awesome (or, if you will, it will be “out of this world”). 

Yup - we will die.  Josie died.  I somehow “know” (believe) that she will not have cancer in that place.  I’m not sure what we’ll be doing there - but that’s incidental.  

Back to the old hymn at the top of today’s blog.  “This world is not my home.  I'm just a-passing through”,

I believe that Josie, Dwayne, Helen and Woody, Uncle George, and uncountable people have “reservations” in that place that has been “prepared for you.  We can argue about if a person is in heaven today, or won’t be there until the last day, what kind of judgment might there be, and who gets in and who doesn’t, and lots of other topics.  We can argue about what is the “right” formula - is it the Catholic method, the Baptist method, the Buddhist method, or the Jewish method?  I don’t know - and I don’t need to know.

From James Chapter 4

“The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.  Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins.  Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.

Yes, love each other deeply - because love covers a multitude of sins.  Be kind, be loving, be forgiving, be gracious.

*****

As an academic, I was preparing students for “graduation”.  For each one of us - for all things - we will have a day, a time - to ‘graduate’ from this world.

After all, This world is not my home, I'm just a-passing through

LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

LOVE COVERS A MULTITUDE OF SINS

Karen Anne White, ©, May 3, 2023