He Is Ageless

10/21/2006

The hardest day of the year for me is October 16th. It matters not the year, it’s the day. On October 16th, 1985, our third son, Philip Andrew Shore was born. He would have been 21 years old this October 16th, and as I thought about that this morning, and what a special birthday that is on earth, God gently whispered to my heart, “He is ageless.” We think of God as being ageless, and yet He reminded me that when we enter into His eternity in Heaven, we are ageless also!

An old hymn says, “When we’ve been there ten thousand years we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’ve first begun.” Phil has been in Heaven almost five years now, and he has no less days to sing God’s praise…that’s hard for us to comprehend on earth as each day adds up into weeks and months and years and decades-- until our time on this earth is finished. We value time here because time is so very precious on earth. Time in Heaven is, but is it precious? Perhaps once again, the things of Heaven are opposite from the things of this earth--gold paves the streets there…

Some believe there is no time in Heaven. I believe time exists there because of some things I have recently been reading. In Revelation it talks about a half hour of silence in Heaven.

When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Revelation 8:1 (NIV)

How would half an hour be measured if there were no time there? Maybe we want there to be no time in Heaven so that those who have gone ahead of us won’t miss us like we miss them…but even with time in Heaven, I still believe they are not missing us. I believe they are at perfect peace in God’s presence, enjoying every moment and perhaps excitedly anticipating our arrival--not crying tears of sorrow and missing until we get there. Life is perfect in Heaven…God’s perfect timing is probably seen much more clearly than we see it here, although we can get glimpses of it here when we watch God work through the everyday events in our lives.

Recently, I gave up my job at our church. I was the receptionist there for the past year, and when asked why I gave this job up, my only answer really was, “It’s time.” What does that mean? Only God really knows, and I can only be obedient in that. If it is time, which I believe it is even without a clear picture of what comes next, I need to be obedient and move on. Sometimes God paints the picture and we walk into it, knowing fully where we are to go next. Sometimes the picture God is painting waits there under the cloth to be revealed and we must trust that it is there.

I trust God that it is there, and just this week as I enjoy my first days of “what comes next,” I am spending a great deal of time being Grandma. Just this week, our son and his wife (Chris and Holly) found a leak from their refrigerator that went undetected until a lot of damage had occurred. When found out, just this past Saturday, they were devastated. Their entire kitchen had to be torn out. They also had to tear out part of their dining room flooring, their front entry way and part of their living room flooring. There is moisture and mold that must be cleared out, and then the flooring, walls and kitchen need to be replaced. While all this takes place, they cannot live there with the mold and smell that comes with it.

Their very kind neighbors opened up their home to them, and are also helping with the repair work. My job is to watch their little guy, Jackson (5 months old), so that Chris can work on rebuilding their home while Holly is at her day job. Chris works nights, so he’s pulling a double shift right now.

How was I to know six weeks ago when I gave my notice at work that my first assignment would be babysitting? I could not, but God knew, and He provided for Chris and Holly, even before they knew the damage that was taking place.

Oswald Chambers wrote, “All God’s revelations are sealed until they are opened to us by obedience. You will never get them open by philosophy or thinking. Immediately you obey, a flash of light comes. Let God’s truth work in you by soaking in it, not by worrying into it. The only way you can get to know is to stop trying to find out and by being born again. Obey God in the thing He shows you, and instantly the next thing is opened up.” (Oct. 10th “My Utmost for His Highest)

I didn’t know what was going to “open up” when I stepped away from my job--and as I sit here writing this, little Jackson is asleep in front of me. We live in an RV, so it’s close quarters! What a pleasure to have this time to spend with him while God provides the other help the kids need to repair their home and make it livable again!

Is this a difficult situation for them? Yes, it’s not fun and it’s costly and it’s hard work, but through it all, God has never left them and He never will. His timing, even through the tough stuff, is still perfect. Even in the tough stuff, we can see His amazing provision!

As I was thinking this morning about October 16th this year, dealing with some of the tough stuff in my own life, I had to smile knowing that my friend Sara is there with Phil right now. In many ways, they had the same sweet spirit. They were both very much children at heart and they both loved to celebrate special events. Phil would get almost giddy as his birthday approached, or Thanksgiving, or Christmas…he loved the food and the presents and the celebration itself.

I saw the same things in Sara. We were at her house with her husband, Mike, and other family members for St. Patrick’s Day this last year. Now to me, St. Patrick’s Day is no big deal. I try to remember to wear green, but that’s about it--I just don’t want to get pinched. Not Sara, she had the decorations up, the corned beef cooking and even party favors and crazy headgear for us to put on. To her, it was a special day!

And this year, as Phil’s birthday on earth approaches, I think of Sara there with him and it brings my heart an even greater peace, because I know if anyone could make it special for him, if there is any need for that there, she would do that for him. Maybe these are just the crazy thoughts we have here on earth, and maybe there is no correlation with what actually takes place in Heaven, but I’m still here and I still have to keep moving forward and maybe God gives us these thoughts of comfort to bring us peace. For whatever reason, it seems to help.

And then God reminded me this morning, “Phil is ageless now.” What an amazing thought that is! He has no less days to live in Heaven than he has already spent there. His life there will go on forever, just as ours will when we live there. He would have been 21 here on earth…in Heaven, it simply doesn’t matter.

I had some crazy thoughts this morning that I probably shouldn’t even share with you, but I will anyway, just to clear my head of them and perhaps learn something through that process…

This morning, as I thought about Sara and the last time I saw her alive, and then the first time I saw the deserted “tent” she lived in on earth when I arrived at the ICU the morning she died, I continued on with those thoughts to the Sara I saw in a beautiful wooden casket on the day of her memorial service. That transition was interesting, for those of us who are strange enough to take the time to not only think about these things but to then write about them… (And please know that Sara would not mind me writing about these things. She loved it when she appeared in these messages.)

What I began to think about was; when did the tradition start that causes us to make the deserted tent of our body look “alive” in the casket? When I last saw Sara in the ICU, she had not been gone from this earth long. And as I went over to her and kissed her forehead and rubbed her cheek, it was so very obvious that her spirit was gone. Her hair was gone from chemo, her make-up had not been applied for days, a slight blueness was creeping in, and her face held the expression she last had on this earth. May I say, there was a sweetness to it…a purity--that this was the part of her that had died, but also that she was very much alive elsewhere, and with our Lord. There was no “make believe” about this scene. On that morning, we could be with the part of her that once lived on this earth, but we could only imagine the whole of her that lived on in the most wonderful place ever.

In contrast, when we view someone in their casket, they are dressed in clothing we would have known them in. They might have a wig on to cover the effects of the chemo on their own hair, and make-up has been applied to make it appear that they are simply sleeping, not dead…although they usually have their glasses on…which has always seemed a strange thing to me. Sara was no exception—that is the way of our world, our culture. And yet, she did not look alive to me, she did not even look like Sara to me, and I think to some it could actually make the whole thought that they are gone that much more difficult to fully accept. Even as little children attend a funeral service, they might wonder why the person just doesn’t get up…

In all this crazy mind wandering that I go through…I began to think about what I might look like in my own casket…I don’t wear make-up while I’m alive, so what would they do with me when I’m gone? If they applied lipstick, that would be crazy!! If someone else tried to do my hair, I can assure you it would be a “bad hair day” as far as I was concerned…not that I would be concerned. What would they dress me in? What if they picked out something that didn’t fit? I have always had several sizes in my closet for different “seasons” in my life! Who would know what size I was actually in…

I know, I know…these are crazy ramblings from someone who likes to write out the thoughts that fill my mind, but maybe these are thoughts some of us have anyway but never express?

And then God reminds us…Sara is ageless now, as Phil is, as are all those who have left this earth. They are not sleeping there in that casket, they are fully alive! Each birthday that comes now, those special days that are difficult for us because those we love are no longer here, matter not to them as far as how old they are or even what they might have looked like after we made them up for our final good-byes.

We are to think about death with a faith as strong as a child who has not been tainted by this world…we are to trust in the Promises of our Lord fully, and know it is not the end…it is only the beginning.

…Jesus said, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.”
Matthew 19:14 (NLT)

Just a week or so ago, our oldest son and his wife went by Phil’s gravesite. They took their little girl, Kylie, age 13 months. They showed Kylie the grave and in words she might understand, they pointed out her Uncle Phil to her…they pointed down. Before they left there that day, they talked to her some more about her Uncle Phil, and then they asked her where he was. Kylie, having the heart and mind of a child that God loves, did not point down…she pointed out and then up into the sky… Make of it what you will, but our family smiles at this story and rejoices that even a little child seems to know the grave is not our last stopping place.

We count each birthday, we celebrate the momentous ones in an even greater way, and we find it difficult to accept the death of some so young. But to God, His children are always alive, either on this earth or with Him in Heaven—not that we are not to grieve, for it grieves God also when they die…

Jesus wept at the tomb of His good friend Lazarus. It seems a crazy thing since He knew He would be calling Lazarus out of that tomb in just a few moments, but His tender heart probably wept for the pain that Mary and Martha felt at the loss of their brother. Perhaps He wept also because they still had not learned to trust Him…to depend on Him. They thought he was “late.” He was not. He was right on time for God’s glory to be shown to all.

John 11:30-44
Jesus had stayed outside the village, at the place where Martha met him. When the people who were at the house consoling Mary saw her leave so hastily, they assumed she was going to Lazarus’s grave to weep. So they followed her there. When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. “Where have you put him?” he asked them.

They told him, “Lord, come and see.” Then Jesus wept. The people who were standing nearby said, “See how much he loved him!” But some said, “This man healed a blind man. Couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?” Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. “Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them. But Martha, the dead man’s sister, protested, “Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.”

Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe?” So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.” Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!”

Jesus wants to set us free…if we will only let Him! We are set free by His Word and by prayer, and with that thought; I have one final story for you today…

In my last message, I told you about a woman that my friend and I went to see in the hospital. She had been there a long time and really wanted to get out but had no place to go. She needed a place that could continue to care for her, but in a less restrictive way.

Just this week, we went to see her again. We had told her we would return, and we intended to keep our promise. She was desperate for visitors and God was providing that for her each day. During our first visit with her, God had placed upon my heart the Scripture about the disciples asking Jesus why they were not able to bring about healing in certain situations. (Mark 9:29) God seemed to be telling me that this woman’s situation was the same, it could only handled with prayer and fasting, and of course, God’s Word.

During these visits, it seemed clear that chit-chat was not what was called for, so for the most part besides taking her for walks in her wheelchair outside, we prayed for her and read Scripture to her. On this last visit, God led me to the story about Peter in Acts 12, where he was locked up in prison--there were a group of people praying for his release. Miraculously, an angel appeared to Peter, his chains fell off and he walked out through the iron gate which automatically opened for him.

As I shared this story with this woman, I told her of all those who were praying for her…she seemed surprised. She turned to my friend and asked her, “Are you praying for me?” My friend told her she was. We went on to explain to her that when she was released, not only would she be praising God but so would all those who were a part of this with her. She was not alone in this. It seemed a strange story to be sharing with a woman who was in ill health and had no place to go, but God is God and He knows so much more than we do.

The very next day, we received news that this woman was released from the hospital to another care facility that was able to take her in and offer her a bit more freedom until she fully recovers from what ails her. We are praising God and rejoicing for all that He has done in this situation!

Prayer, fasting, God’s Word…there is power there and there is eternal life there and there is Hope there, even in seemingly hopeless situations.

We can believe our Lord!
We can depend on Him!
We can rest in Him!

So that is what I will do this October 16th--believe, depend and rest…and remember the agelessness of our youngest son in Heaven.

What joy amidst the tears,
Diane