"I am Eternally Living" - 07/22/16 - Isaiah 37-39; Psalm 76

"Whatever time I have left is spent in death's waiting room.

No more glimpses of God in the land of the living,

No more meetings with my neighbors,

no more rubbing shoulders with friends.

 

This body I inhabit is taken down and packed away like a camper's tent.

Like a weaver, I've rolled up the carpet of my life as God cuts me free of the loom

And at day's end sweeps up the scraps and pieces." (Isaiah 38:10-12)

 

 

I smile when I think about how over the years as I age,  I keep moving up the number which is considered "old".

Death.

Ironic when you think about what a big part of living it is. 

 From the moment we are conceived, we begin the process of dying.

 

While in our youth, we don't look at death as one of the things we will experience.

 

When in high school a close family friend died from leukemia when he was much younger than me, Even then I didn't think about death actually happening to me.  I still don't understand everything about death, but did immediately recognize it means separation. I found there were those I wanted to be with, yet couldn't because of death.
 
Throughout the years, death has been a visitor in the path I have walked. We have two children whom I never held in my arms, only in my womb and heart, but know ABBA has them in His care. There are many I still yearn to be with.   I am able to look back and see many instances where death was near, for self and others, but ABBA held him back.
 
Death. Not a guest I particularly care to entertain in this journey of living.  For myself nor for others.

At times throughout my years have come the moments of wishful thinking.

 

My body is a constant reminder of making its way to death and I yearn for the youthfulness in movement, lack of aches and pains, wrinkles and sags. My mind isn't as sharp as it used to be.  The hearing is missing out and the mind is substituting in parts of conversations. And each day the eyes grow dimmer with each blink.

And during all this, He has given me "glimpse of Him in the land of the living".

 

How much I love being "young" in Him and experiencing the excitement of life.

Of Divine Appointments He has lined up for me each moment.

Of the joy in sharing life with His family.

Of just the delight in all He has surrounded me with.
 
I can choose to go on this limited time journey either focused on Him or on "self".

I can wallow in the puddles of self pity or skip through them laughing in the rains of life.

I can turn my face upward under His Sonshine or sit in the caves of shadows.

I can dig in my heels and sit right down in the comfort zone or run free in the meadows with Him. Playing tag with my Bestest Friend

and knowing

He will let me catch Him.

It is my free choice to drink in each moment He blesses me with or live in unquenched thirst.

Most important of all though, because of the death and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ,

He has removed any fear or regret in my coming death.
ABBA has opened my eyes to see,  When in Him - death is actually a good thing.

 

Because I am in Christ.  Because He is my Savior.
Death is the last step in this journey before I am with Him face to face - for eternity.