Oh, the Places You'll Go!
Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
My how car rides with the family sure brought us places! Whether it was in the family station wagon or later when Dad drove the 1986 Chevrolet Conversion Van, we cruised together in our reliable horse powered beast of the road. It was Dad, Mom, Mandy, David and Becca, and we all loved each other dearly. The weekly treks to the church building, family trips, funerals, weddings, oh the places you go! Dad and Mom were sure to have us travel to gospel meetings in the surrounding Houston area as often as we could. Becoming acquainted with God’s children from across the city brought us all encouragement over the years. Often we’d see another family of Christians from our very own flock back home and we would share a knowing smile or a warm embrace. I liked sitting next to Mom and Dad in the pew, where there was always a warm shoulder to rest my head upon from the long day or a long sermon. I remember a beloved servant of Jesus and great orator in the Word, named Dee Bowman, who would use the English language with such emotion and particularity that he would make unfamiliar words seems familiar. Brother Bowman often had lines that resonated like, “If you miss heaven, well, you’ve just missed it all!” I wanted to go to heaven too!
There is an undercurrent of joy just below the surface when we gather as those who believe in a crucified Christ and have faith in a risen Savior, Jesus the Messiah. We who gather and who share a place to worship after the sun has gone down, we who long to hear the redemption story told in different tones and tenors by different orators of the word of God, who sing together songs of love and thanksgiving, songs of rejoicing and victory, we who pray to a living God in our secret places. There is joy to be shared.
It is good to be assembled, to fit together. But why? Why do we cling to each other in love for one another? Perhaps in part, is that we recognize a likeness in the image we share, that emboldens us to be set apart. With one another in the Spirit, we agree and in one accord we travel together and that spurs us on. Giddy Up y’all!
Consider the prayer of Jesus to the Father as recorded in the 17th chapter of the book of John, a prayer for those who believe in Him through the message delivered through the disciples who were sent into the world.
“I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one - I in them and you in me - so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
We are bound together in love. Dream of those clouds of witnesses who have gone on before us, may we see a glimpse of ourselves and who we can be. Those faithful, of humble and contrite hearts who when they see Jesus will fall down and worship Him and know His voice. We are reminded of our numbered days and what can be accomplished in the time we are given. A song begins with the words:
On Zion’s glorious summit stood
A numerous host redeemed by blood!
They hymned their King in strains divine;
I heard the song, and strove to join.
Yes, that is a sense, liken to when I was called in from the world and stepped out of the cold and stepped close to the fire of the camp. From the outside looking in, I heard the song and strove to join! The song of those redeemed by blood. The anchor of hope, the proclamation of faith, and the sacrificial love we share, this longing of home. Do you not sense this brothers and sisters, fellow saints and fellow servants, in these mortal coils of flesh and bone? We long to be among the host in heaven, to witness what our earthly bodies cannot sense, the eternal glory of the Father and the Son, who are One. We are already living in this reality. To be raised up in the last day is to eat His flesh and drink His blood, this is eternal life.
Remember the risen Savior. Through loss and heartache, of those who leave our number and carry on in the vineyard in far off places, to lay our children and loved ones to rest through the sting of death and decay, or our children who suffer with disease, and our loved ones tire from sickness. Remember His word and be transformed. The victory is written and we believe. Put on the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God and carry on! Be strong and courageous and suffer well. Praise and honor and glory and power forever and ever, to Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!
Help one another resist sin and remain faithful. Confront disobedience and spur on genuine transformation. Comfort, encourage, counsel, speak the truth in love and earnestly urge one another to glorify Jehovah, the Great I AM, there is no other.
You may travel with a whole family, or on the lone rode. By whatever mode you travel, on two legs, or four wheels, by horse or by jet plane, through the age of advanced technology that zooms us around world on magical screens, remember, if you miss heaven, well, you’ve just missed it all.
In Love,
Drew Lopez
Which makes more sense: that God made everything
out of nothing or that nothing made everything?
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