Behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” Revelation 7: 9-10
I have talked to people who just go to their family reunions to eat the food. One man told me last week that he hates those reunions and only goes for the food. He said. “All everyone does is argue about politics.” Other people love to have that periodic get together, so they can see how their families have grown and added more to an already-flourishing family tree. People may fly in from far-distant places just to join their extended family for the day or a weekend. Family reunions take on all manner of scenarios.
Our family had a delightful reunion this past weekend at the farm where we grew up. The current owner graciously opened her home to us and allowed my sister and me to share memories of both fun and work. There was delicious food, and time to roam about the farm and even play croquet like we did long years ago on the same turf.
In a way, my sister and I could relive the past. The next generations neither had the experience nor the joy our generation had growing up there. Our children and others attending, however, heard our stories from those eighty-some years ago, and heard about our life those long years past. These stories gave them a sense of what farm life had been like in the Great Depression and World War II. Perhaps, despite hardships, did they long to enter a time capsule and retreat to the 1940’s and our farm?
My sister and I put together a booklet of photographs and stories to document how the farm worked in the years from 1937 to 1950 when we left the farm. No, we couldn’t go back, nor would we want to. Yet, to get a whiff of that native air, and to see the place one more time, established how precious that home had been to our family.
The farm is no longer the hard-scrabble land from those long-ago decades. Indeed, the current owner works very hard from before dawn to after dusk. Now, however, those buildings and acreage have become a beautiful showplace, and a dream to carry forward until we reach our final home—one far better than any dream or sweet reminiscence.
Do you long for your eternal home? Ah … what a reunion we anticipate! The older I am, the more I yearn to go to our ultimate reunion. I want to see Jesus and be with Him. I want to sit down with my family and the hundreds of people I’ve known and who have gone ahead. I want to talk to saints from centuries past. I want to see the glories I can’t even imagine from my earthly perspective.
“Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! Revelation 22: 20
Your kingdom come …
… And for now, as we wait …
your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6: 10 …
… and we live and work and enjoy the world God has created for us. If we have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, one Day we will be in the eternal Kingdom. The most glorious scene, or finest edifice we may have seen on earth will pale in the Masterpiece of God’s eternal home. Can you imagine?
Meanwhile, we are to live in ways to express what the eternal Kingdom looks like. We are God’s ambassadors to those who have never met the King of kings.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5: 20a
And we are to live in the land, be productive, do good, and to trust and be faithful to God.
Trust in the LORD, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Psalm 37: 3
Yes, I do look forward to the “Upper-taker” [1] if the undertaker doesn’t get me first. Even so, I will always be with the Lord.
Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 4: 17
We all took cell phones and cameras full of pictures at the reunion. One of my favorites reminds me of my final journey heavenward: “The Garden Road.”
Challenge:
How do you feel about family reunions? If you dread them, do you dread or do you anticipate the ultimate reunion for eternity? What does your pathway look like toward the Day?
Prayer:
Lord, I long for the Day when I shall see you face to face—a true reunion when I won’t have to repack my suitcase to go back to my earthly home. Make me suitable for the ultimate reunion by helping me be the ambassador for Christ who shows others what heaven is like by how I live in the here and now. Because of Jesus. Amen.
Promise:
In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” John 14: 2-4
[1] Upper-taker based on the return of Christ, John 14:3: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
[i] https://img.freepik.com/premium-vector/family-reunion-cartoon-vector_889056-149093.jpg?w=2000
[ii] Poem by June E. Titus
