On Monday morning Our Lord Jesus came and took Tante Agnes home.  And on Thursday in the wee morning hour, He also came to take Tante Gwie, beloved wife of Oom Kiat, home.  In the words of Paul, in 2 Timothy 4:7-8, they both have fought the good fight; both have finished the race, and both have kept the faith.  Now there is in store for them the crowns of righteousness, which the Lord Jesus, the righteous Judge, will award to them on that day. Amen.

Like the old Gospel song says, “This world is not my home; I am just a passing through.”  Both Tante Agnes and Tante Gwie have lived a full life and given their lives in the service of Jesus Our Lord and others.  They enjoyed their life as a precious gift from God and yet they were ready to exchange it for a better life with God in heaven.  They did not cling to the world; they merely passed through it.  They fixed not only their eyes, but also their hearts on Jesus, who gave His life for their sins.  And now they are in the presence of Jesus and in the company of other believers who have gone home before.

The Bible tells us more about heaven than hell, so rightly did C. S. Lewis observe that we know “much more about heaven than hell.”  There will obviously be a lot of surprises when we get to heaven but for the most part we will be in familiar surroundings.  We will meet lots of people that we knew, and we will live the life that God has so ordained for us while we were on earth. But there is one more thing that makes us feel right at home in heaven.  Again, I will quote from C. S. Lewis, “When we see the face of God, we shall know that we have always known it.  He has been a party to, has made, sustained, and moved moment by moment within, all our earthly experiences of innocent love.” We, who live in and by the love of God on earth, have lived in the presence of God today.  He is no stranger to us.

Pastor Paul