You're Not Going Anywhere Just Yet

Good Monday morning! Ah, October and the promise of cooler weather, shorter days, and falling leaves. The leaf thing is well underway here in the forgotten corner of Colorado. We don't have the big mountains that the state is famous for and the river flowing into Nebraska is a mite sparse, kind of like a small crick actually, but the trees speak of water that once flowed. We can get down in our thinking place and make all sorts of changes to our environment. Put up a nice, symmetrical mountain over there with just the right amount of snow on it year round. Add in a lovely, blue lake just over there with a small creek flowing into it and a nice river flowing out. Rain days arrive only on the days we feel like staying inside, and snow days fall straight down and melt off the pathways before we get outside. The grass is always green and the trees change color twice each year, or maybe each season, but the leaves stay put for the most part. We want to make our little vision of Heaven come true right here. However, Heaven will not come down to the new Earth before God says so, and you and me are not going up to Heaven until God says that too.

In my depression, I might think that dying for Christ would be the easier route, and indeed it might be, but Jesus chose me to live for Him. We can get too wrapped up in imagining what Heaven might be, and forget our mission to spread some good news to those in dire need of it. You or I may be called to die for Christ, but we are all most definitely called to live for the Lord. What is probably the longer and more difficult route to Heaven, may be just what you and I need before we get there. And not only is it our need that is fulfilled, but our witness may be exactly what a friend in Christ needs, or that stranger on the train needs to hear, or perhaps what someone we will never meet needs to read. Your witness may go like a wind-blown seed to a faraway place and grow in the heart of a quite unexpected person. We may not know how far our seeds of witness travelled until we come to see Jesus.

A little vision of what Heaven might be like can be a good way to recharge the hope we have in Christ. But, we also have a life to live in Christ. You and I may not be going anywhere just yet. We have a witness to tell, a good story to spread. Life here in this world is far from easy, but we have a mighty savior in Christ. Our Lord may have something wonderful to show you right here in this life before you move on to your eternal home. Look up and live life in Christ Jesus!

Bucky