Can I Get You Anything?

Saturday, 19 Apr 2003

"Can I get you anything?"
That's the question I asked him.
He answered,
"How about a new life?"

Pretty strange request from a 14 year old boy?
It sure was, but after 4 years of illness, I guess I shouldn't have been so shocked.

Phil was sitting in our living room chair one day when I asked him that question, "Can I get you anything?"  When he answered me with "How about a new life," perhaps I should have known his journey was coming to an end. His body and spirit were getting tired, and maybe he was being prepared to move on...to a new life.

That is what he has now, in heaven. A completely new, wonderfully glorious, awesomely prepared New Life by God. One that he could never have imagined. One that he was a bit fearful of moving on to because of the unknown. One that will last forever, and ever and ever and ever...a New Life provided by Jesus Christ.

Some days it is just still so unbelievable that he is gone. That the son that was born to us here on earth is no longer here to hug and joke with and share things with. Some days this world is all too real, and the world to come is hard to grasp in my simple thinking. Some days I just long to reach out and touch my son, to tell him I love him and to squeeze him tight. Some days...I just miss him so.

But, he has a new life now, and really, that is what he wanted. All things are new to him and everlasting and even if I cannot imagine the world he lives in now, I must keep believing. I must stay focused or the weight of it all would crush me. I would be buried in the darkness of it all.

I have come as a light to shine in this
dark world, so that all who put their trust
in me will no longer remain in the darkness.
John 2:46
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Jesus knew. He knew about that darkness. He lived here for 33 years. He knew the difficulty we all face, He faced it too. He came to this world to live among us, to bring us hope, and when He left this world, it was never the same again. How thankful I am for that!

How thankful I am for my son also, because when he left this world, it changed me forever. This experience would change anyone, but the question is, how? For the good, or for the bad? Maybe somewhere in between? I only know my journey from the inside out, I cannot know another person so well, but I am much more sensitive to their pain, to their joy, to their sorrow, having experienced my loss.

Last night we attended our Good Friday service at church. A moving service focused on the journey to the cross. The Crucifixion of Jesus and His blood that was shed for all of us.
The suffering that He endured to give us all a New Life!
We focused on the Cross that He freely gave up His life on, without a fight.

"I don't have much more time to talk
to you, because the prince of this world
approaches. He has no power over me,
but I will do what the Father requires of
me, so that the world will know that I love
the Father. Come, let's be going."
John 14:30-31
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Jesus knew where the power was, it was not with the enemy, Satan, it was with his Father. He knew what He had to do, and even though it was difficult even for the Son of God, He was determined to do what the Father required of Him.

Why?
Because He knew the perfect plan.
He knew what was waiting on the other side of His darkest day.
He knew that the most terrible Friday of His earthly life would become
"Good Friday" to all of us who believe in Him.
And He went willingly to the Cross to die for all of us, to give us a New Life.

We are all sinners, whether we care to admit it or not. We all need this New Life that has been offered to us because we are all dying. We are all diseased with the sin of this world, and our bodies are wasting away, whether we care to admit it or not. But our daily sins are not what will keep us out of heaven. Those sins have been taken care of by Jesus. The sin that will keep us out of heaven is unbelief.

The world's sin is unbelief in me.
John 16:9
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When we choose not to believe, the New Life that Jesus died to give us is not ours. We don't own it. We can't claim it. We can't hope in it. We are blinded to it. It is lost to us.

And when Phil, or anyone would ask us for a "new life," what do we have to offer them? What can we tell them when all else on this earth has failed to bring them that new life? When medicine and technology or simply old age has brought them to a place of looking past this world and onto the next? We have nothing to offer them, because we have nothing beyond the physical realities of this world at our fingertips unless the Spirit of God is alive in us. Unless we know about a New Life that has been offered to us, and we can offer it to them.

"O righteous Father, the world
doesn't know you, but I do; and these
disciples know you sent me. And I have
revealed you to them and will keep on
revealing you. I will do this so that your
love for me may be in them and I in them."
John 17:25-26
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Jesus wanted to give us hope. He wanted us to know his Father the way that He did. He wanted us to realize that this world was not all there is, that there was so much more, and He wanted us to pass that message along to others.

Today is the Saturday between Good Friday, the day of the Crucifixion, and Sunday, the day of Christ's Resurrection. This is the day when those who loved Him mourned for Him, missed Him, and were disappointed that He was not the long awaited king they had been looking for.
How could He be?
He was now dead.
Or so it seemed...

Early Sunday morning, while it
was still dark, Mary Magdalene
came to the tomb and found that the stone
had been rolled away from the entrance.
John 20:1

Peter and the other disciple ran to the
tomb to see. -
Then the other disciple also went in, and
he saw and believed - for until then they
hadn't realized that the Scriptures said he
would rise from the dead.
John 20: 3 & 8-9
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Even those who had been with Jesus, even those who had been told by Jesus himself what was going to happen, had a hard time grasping it all. They had a hard time believing. Why? Because our thinking is so limited. Our view is so much on this world we can't fathom another. We look for earthly kings instead of our heavenly King, and when that earthly king dies, we are devastated.

Then came Sunday!

But early on Sunday morning
the women came to the tomb,
taking the spices they had prepared.
They found that the stone covering the
entrance had been rolled aside. So they
went in, but they couldn't find the body of
the Lord Jesus. They were puzzled, trying
to think what could have happened to it.
Suddenly, two men appeared to them,
clothed in dazzling robes. The women
were terrified and bowed low before them.
Then the men asked, "Why are you looking
in a tomb for someone who is alive?
He isn't here! He has risen from the dead!
Don't you remember what he told you
back in Galilee, that the Son of Man must
be betrayed into the hands of sinful men
and be crucified, and that he would rise
again the third day?"
Luke 24:1-7
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It was Sunday! A new day! A new way of being in this world had now begun! A new way of looking at the worst that can happen, and turning it into the hope we all long for! Jesus was alive, and He had brought us a New Life! He had conquered death so that we all might live, even though we die. He was the only One who could accomplish that, because He was the Only Son of God, and that is what He came to this earth to do!

"Can I get you anything?"
"How about a new life?"

Well, that I can't get you, but I know Someone who can!!
I know Someone who has already provided that!
I know Someone who has prepared a place for you that you will love!
His name is Jesus!

Is there any greater comfort than that?
Is there any better answer that can be given when this world offers us no answers?
As a parent, am I eternally grateful to have been able to offer that to my son?
You better believe it!

And that is what I offer to you this Easter weekend. This Saturday, as we are between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. I offer you the Good News of a New Life! If there is anything I would ever like to get for you, this would be it. But to tell you the truth, I can't even get it for you. It is yours to take, to grab hold of, to believe in. All I can do is tell you about it, to share the Good News, and the rest is up to you! The rest was up to Phil. If he wanted a new life, it was his for the asking, but he had to ask for it. It would not be forced upon him. The choice was his. To believe in the saving power of Jesus Christ or not.

If he just sat there in that chair, in our living room, and refused to ask, he would be left alone. He would be loved and cared for by God but he would not find that New Life that he was seeking. I could not give it to him on this earth. I could not heal his disease. I could not make him feel better. But God could and would, upon his asking.

You may say, but God didn't. Phil died, Phil was not given that new life. True enough, in this world we live in. But he no longer lives in this world. I'm not talking about an earthly king, I'm talking about a heavenly One. I'm not talking about an earthly new life, I'm talking about a heavenly one. A New Life I can't share with him as yet, but one that I know I will share with him one day.

"Men of Galilee, why are you standing
here staring at the sky? Jesus has been
taken away from you into heaven. And
someday, just as you saw him go, he will return!"
Acts 1:11
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I saw Phil leave for heaven. He was taken away from me for a time. But I will see him again and when I do, I bet he will be so excited to tell me about the New Life he has been enjoying! The One that Jesus Christ offered to him while he was on this earth. The one he accepted while he was here in his sick and dying body. The one that offered him what he wanted most, a new life. Just as we cannot imagine what that is, he could not either. He still had the questions and the fears that we all have, but as a mother I was able to comfort him with the Word of God. In his final days he drank it up, he was so very thirsty for it. He needed it more than food or water. He needed it more than medication. He needed it more than he needed his mother. It was the only thing that mattered to him. He asked me to read it to him because it comforted him like nothing else could.

Easter Sunday! A day of celebration for all that will be, for all that can be, for all that matters! Jesus Christ rose from the grave and gave us all a New Life! As He wandered this earth from town to town, He didn't need to ask "Can I get you anything?" The people flocked to Him wanting to be healed. Wanting that new life. He already knew that. That's why He came. That's what He did for all of them by dying on the Cross and continues to do for all of us even now in His Resurrection.

How about a New Life?
Yes, thank you very much!
I'll take one!
I hope you will too!

Living in His peace and joy,
Diane>