THE SHEPHERD’S CORNER

On Thursday in the wee morning hour, Jesus Our Lord came and took our sister Tante Sioe home. We certainly didn’t expect that to happen. You see, last week she fell down and fractured her pelvic bone; other than that she seemed fine. We all thought that she would just need to rest and recover naturally in a nursing facility. But God thought differently; He had a far better plan for her.

Last week our brother Oom Anthon was admitted to the hospital; he had difficulty breathing and was unconscious. When we saw him, he didn’t look well; not only could he not breathe on his own, he was also unresponsive. But on the following day he woke up; not only is he now responsive, he’s also breathing on his own.

God has different plans for each of us but He has the same love for each of us, His beloved children. The fact that some lives are cut short does not mean that He loves them any less than those whose lives are prolonged. He loves us just the same; His plans happen to be different. James the apostle died not long after Jesus ascended to heaven; but John the apostle lived long. James died in Jerusalem; John died in the Island of Patmos, off the west coast of Turkey.

We don’t know when we will die, how we will die, and where we will die. We only know that we will die. But we live again because resurrection is already promised to us by Jesus, who has risen from the dead. In his book, Resurrection, Morton Kelsey writes, “The resurrection reveals the loving and seeking God who would find us and help us achieve the deepest and most lasting desires of our being.” What is our deepest and most lasting desire? It’s none other than living forever with Our Loving God and those who love Him. Resurrection gives us the assurance for and a glimpse of it.

Pastor Paul