I've always wondered what it would be like when I had my first experience with this after not experiencing it for 25 years. I often thought of how I would react... would I freak out? would I lock myself up in my bedroom and not return to society?
Well, this past year I experienced death not just for the first time in my life but several times. Each time it got closer to home. First was the death of a friends, Allison Lewis, soon-to-be adopted baby to poverty. Then my coworker, Kristin Prickett, lost her 9 month old baby to SIDS. These deaths, although they weren't from my own family, had a significant impact on my life. At one point I think Drew was seriously concerned with my emotional well-being.
I believe the reason for the impact they had on me was not only because these were friends of mine or the fact that they were just babies. I think it was because God was preparing my heart for the loss of my grandfather I would soon experience. My grandfather passed away this January after battling lung cancer that spread to other parts of his body.
Today as I sat through a sermon about local missions and how the church should desire for His Kingdom to come, His will be done, on EARTH as it is in HEAVEN (Matthew 6:9-15) and how this should impact our wants for the world we live in today and the way we serve our community and one another, the pastor turned to Isaiah 65 to read about what the New Heaven and the New Earth will be like.
The verse that loudly resounded as I heard it was verse 20, "No more shall there be in it (the earth) an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days..."
How great of an encouragement is that? Oh how I long for this day!! These are words from the Lord! What a great promise! I long so much for the day to see loved ones who have passed away! And I long so much for the day that no one will have to experience loss anymore!
I have a mighty and powerful creator who is in complete control of each and every moment! So until that day, I will focus on the New Kingdom that is coming and set my eyes on things above and not on things that are on earth (Colossians 3:2), and I will pray that His Kingdom come quickly!
How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, yes, faints
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.
Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young,
at your altars, O Lord of hosts,
my King and my God.
Blessed are those who dwell in your house,
ever singing your praise!
Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
As they go through the Valley of Baca
they make it a place of springs;
the early rain also covers it with pools.
They go from strength to strength;
each one appears before God in Zion.
O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;
give ear, O God of Jacob!
Behold our shield, O God;
look on the face of your anointed!
For a day in your courts is better
than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the
house of my God
than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
the Lord bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does he withhold
from those who walk uprightly.
O Lord of hosts,
blessed is the one who trusts in you!"
-Psalm 84
Desiring His Kingdom,
-LB
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