May 17, 2005

• My Thoughts on the Passing of my Aunt Ann Peacock

  There is some sad news today.  I heard of the passing of my Auntie Ann this morning, from a series of unexpected complications resulting from knee replacement surgery.  My sympathies go to her three children upon this unexpected sad turn of events.  It all happened too suddenly and too soon.

  I remember Aunt Ann's wild sense of humor, and we always had nothing but fun whenever we got together.  She always accused me of playing in her jewelry box when she wasn't looking and swinging on the drapes Tarzan style.  I was think that I must have been too small to remember these goings on, because I have no recollection either event.  At any rate, I may ask my cousins for final custody of her jewelry box, empty is ok.  I know that Aunt Ann is having a rollicking laugh over that right now.

  God has promised us that He is the God of the Living and not of the dead, and that all who believe in what He did when Christ Jesus died in our places on the cross and then rose from the dead will receive forgiveness and everlasting life.  I am thankful that God invites is to dwell with Him eternally not on the basis of anything good that we have done, but on the basis of what He has done, and that all we need to is to ask His forgiveness and accept His free gifts of the Holy Spirit, salvation and everlasting life.

  I do not know what Heaven is like.  I believe it is probably in another even more solid dimension outside of time that we are unable to experience or comprehend in our present state of existence.  But I think that according to Hebrews 12, those who have gone on before us into Glory can see us and cheer us on as they see the full picture, and that God indeed has the power to work all things together for good.

  I know that Auntie Ann is now in God's presence, and that she would not want to be back in the body that so suddenly and hopelessly deteriorated in the past week.  Praise God that she is safe with Him, and that according to His rich promises we will be reunited someday.

  May 19 - Some more thoughts from recent events.  They say, "You can't take it with you," and this is indeed true.  There is absolutely nothing that I can take with me when my body ceases to be a fit vessel for my soul.  I can't take my favorite books and CDs or any of my little collections or even a coffee cup.  There is nothing that I can take with me.  But wait, is there something?  I think that there are, and they are priceless treasures of infinite and beloved worth.

  We can tells others that there is a just and loving God who created their universe and who loves them enough to enter it in human form and die for the sin that would have convicted them.  We can tell them that the holy judge has taken off his robe and come down to stand in the place of the convicted to take the death sentence.  We can love others and pray that the Holy Spirit would work in their hearts to create faith which leads them to understand their need for repentance and cleansing.  We can entreat God that the ones that He has given us to love would ask Jesus to enter their hearts and be the King of their lives, so that they may have eternal life as God intended.  We can give our heads, hands and hearts to God, that he may use us as tools to bring those that He loves to Himself.

  Much has been written about love throughout the entire history of man.  It is a universal concept, and I think that it is an eternal concept.  God loves forever, without beginning and without end, outside of the bounds of time.  We are created in God's image, and like our Creator, our love for those who no longer dwell in their bodies does not end with their death.  Perhaps that is why death is so painful for those left behind.  We are not ready to stop loving the one who passed on, and will never be ready, because this is contrary to the eternal quality of love as God created it.

  The people that we love are our treasures in an intangible sense.  We do not keep them locked in a box or a bank vault, of course.  They are not treasures that we hold in our hands, but are even more valuable.  When they believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior and King, they receive eternal life, and they can NEVER be lost to us.  They are our treasures to love forever, kept safe in God's hands.  As I said yesterday, I do not know what form this eternal life takes because I have never experienced the death of my body.  God is outside of time, and will take me to where He is.  That is enough knowledge for me right now. 

  This is why I can be at peace about my Auntie Ann.  I know that she is safe and my treasure forever, waiting for me with Jesus at her side.  There are many other people that I love and who have become my treasures during my life on earth.  I am a greedy collector who hates loosing things, and want to keep all of my treasures forever.  It is my prayer for all of my treasures that God would reveal Himself to you, that He would come into your life and present you with the gift of His salvation.  All you have to do is say that you want it.  It is free.  You are my treasures, and I want to take all of you with me, no exceptions.

  May 20 - I actually do have one more thing to say that God has laid on my heart.  Here in Japan, the dead are addressed and spoken to all of the time.  If there is an important family milestone or special occasion, it is all reported to those enshrined in a family Buddhist altar or grave.  And what would the departed say if they could talk back?  This in itself is an interesting point to ponder.

  If God is the God of the living and has promised eternal life, then Auntie Ann is alive and with God Himself.  Maybe she can hear us if we talk to her.  I don't really know what "the established procedure" regarding communications in Heaven in the afterlife is, but I would like to think that she can hear us.  I don't mean praying or asking requests like she is a saint or anything.  I wonder what kind of work that people in Heaven have.  Is it to enjoy God's presence?  Is their work to pray that God's promise to work all things together for good in the lives of those who love Him be fulfilled?  I imagine praise takes up a good deal of a Heavenly day, too.  Or how about just spending time (but time exists no more...) bathed in the love of Jesus, who loved her enough to sacrifice all that He had, even His very life.

  And what would Auntie Ann say if we were able to hear her with our mortal, earthly ears?  Can I be allowed to imagine a bit?  Maybe she would say that this was where she always wanted to be, and that she found what she was always looking for all of her life.  She would say that the mansion that Jesus prepared for her in Heaven is far more lovely than the palace of any king.  (I hope that the builders had time to finish painting and get the scaffolding down since she arrived a bit early.)  She would say that she could never imagine things being any other way than they are now, and that she would never again want them as they were.  She might say that she now understands all that Jesus gave up when he was born into a mortal body to live among us here on earth.

  She would tell us that she has never been more all right, and she would tell us that all of God's promises are true.  She would tell us that she is happy to be with her father again, whom she knew too little of on earth.  She would tell us how thrilled she is to see that Jack is healthy and cured of all of the sickness that he suffered.  She would tell us that we are utter fools and to be pitied if we do not believe the promises of God, and that she is longing for all of us, her treasures, to come to a knowledge of the salvation that she herself now knows from experience.  She would say, "It's all true!  Believe!  Accept God's free gift and become His treasure, and mine!"  I imagine that she is praying in love for all of us right now.

  

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