Once I die I will...
Illustration
"Once I die I will be with my daughter," one mother reported during a home visitation.
"I can hardly wait to join my husband in heaven," said one dying woman in the hospital hours before her death.
"Will I see Mama in heaven?" asked a six-year-old of me while we were together at the cemetery.
Our humanness keeps getting in the way of our faith. Even in death, when the greater joy should be to meet and become an angel of the Lord, our humanness would overshadow our desire to be at one with God.
You will not find it easy to use this passage of Scripture in its truth. To be honest with you, my fellow clergy, I would not want to erase the need of anyone to believe in their heaven. Especially when, in the face of death, they need that belief.
However, we can use this Scripture advantageously and newly whenever possible to start getting our Christians to think of the right purpose for dying. For getting to heaven. For being at one with God.
"I can hardly wait to join my husband in heaven," said one dying woman in the hospital hours before her death.
"Will I see Mama in heaven?" asked a six-year-old of me while we were together at the cemetery.
Our humanness keeps getting in the way of our faith. Even in death, when the greater joy should be to meet and become an angel of the Lord, our humanness would overshadow our desire to be at one with God.
You will not find it easy to use this passage of Scripture in its truth. To be honest with you, my fellow clergy, I would not want to erase the need of anyone to believe in their heaven. Especially when, in the face of death, they need that belief.
However, we can use this Scripture advantageously and newly whenever possible to start getting our Christians to think of the right purpose for dying. For getting to heaven. For being at one with God.
