Saying Grace

“Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven…For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened…Now it is God who has made us…and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” 2 Co 5:1, 4-5.

I remember when our sweet dad was diagnosed with cancer I came home, and began to fill Bruce in on the appointment. At one point in the conversation I told him that Daddy was terminal. He looked at me with loving eyes and said, ‘Brenda, we are all terminal.’ I’ve never forgotten those words and truer words have never been spoken. From the onset of birth, we begin the countdown of going home. We begin living in the hourglass as the grains slowly drop one by one into the ‘days lived out’ mound. We were created to share fellowship with God with the end goal being our reunion with Him. While on earth we get to fellowship with Him through His spirit. But one day we get to fellowship with Him face to face. But thankfully, until then we have been given the down payment of sorts to keep our hearts longing for home. The Spirit moves in us and through us, transforming our earthly bodies into glorious bodies. As we cross that threshold, our broken earthly bodies will be discarded like an overcoat. Our new glorious bodies will never age or decay.

There is a thin veil between heaven and earth, and my grandmother spoke of this in such beautiful terms. I told her how astonished and inspired I was how courageously she walked out her grief. Her words held life for me and I’ll never forget them. She told me that it was like Granddaddy just got up from one side of the table of Jesus and moved around to the other side to sit closer to Him. What a beautiful image that we sit as the Body around the table of Jesus but are all still connected to the same feast. I know there is nothing more powerful than longing for home. ‘Home is not so much about a structure but the people that inhabit it.’ All Things New, Kelly Minter, p. 75.

I don’t know about you but I am all about going home in God’s timing, and seeing those who now reside there. There is an empty chair on that side of the table between my daddy and my sister, and of course Jesus will say grace.