(Written on June 29, 2011)
On Monday I visited Haddon’s grave for the first time by myself. I wanted to go and really just think about his reality of heaven and rising again. I know that there are many, many parents who go to stand over their buried child and have absolutely no idea how to feel anything except hopelessness, or dread, maybe regret. You could tell from some engravings on the headstones that some parents where looking to other things for help and comfort: the virgin Mary, angels, their child they lost, all these things they looked to for strength. I prayed for them, and I was so thankful that I was able to know the good news of Jesus as I came to visit my child. As I walked to his grave, I was talking to God, whom I knew I had access to because of His Son who died but also rose from the dead. And with that same power, Haddon will soon rise. So, I walked in hope to his grave. Still sad, still grieving and missing him, but with full confidence and hope.
I also feel it is good for Christians to walk through cemeteries from time to time. As you walk through one, all you can think about is people who have left this life, their money, their possessions, and their families. You can’t bury anything with you to make it go with your soul into eternity. It’s a good reminder to see a headstone that states a beginning and and end date, knowing the time is coming for all of us. I walked passed some graves that held people who have died over 150 years ago. One hundred and fifty. You look around and wonder, who will rise and be in Glory forever with God, or who were the ones who rejected the Lord and will rise to judgment. God has given you a beginning date, and God has given you and end date. For Christians, it’s just a reminder that we are passing through this world, and heaven is our home, and it’s coming soon. It’s a reminder that no matter how much money we make, or don’t make, our outcome is still the same: we will pass away, and we will not take any of our hard earned (God-given) money, period. We will not take our wardrobe. We will not take our cars. We will not take our houses. When you walk through a cemetery, those things feel temporary, as they should. When I say it’s good for Christians, I mean it’s good for us because it reminds us of the only thing we can depend on; Jesus Christ and how he took the complete punishment for our sin, and absolutely promises to forgive those who believe. That’s all we have to hold onto that is lasting, our promise for eternal life. We look at graves and see that everything else fails, they aren’t not lasting and we cannot take them with us. It’s tempting to love something so much here, to the point where you feel you could never part with it, but you will. You will part with your possessions. And it’s good! Believers in Jesus are going to Heaven! We won’t need them or love them! God gives us money and possessions for reasons now on this earth, but it’s only for this time, he doesn’t give you something so you can love it more than Him. Walk through a cemetery sometime soon, it was good for me.
I read this in my quiet time this morning from 1 John, John is writing to Christians about their hope of being children of God:
On Monday I visited Haddon’s grave for the first time by myself. I wanted to go and really just think about his reality of heaven and rising again. I know that there are many, many parents who go to stand over their buried child and have absolutely no idea how to feel anything except hopelessness, or dread, maybe regret. You could tell from some engravings on the headstones that some parents where looking to other things for help and comfort: the virgin Mary, angels, their child they lost, all these things they looked to for strength. I prayed for them, and I was so thankful that I was able to know the good news of Jesus as I came to visit my child. As I walked to his grave, I was talking to God, whom I knew I had access to because of His Son who died but also rose from the dead. And with that same power, Haddon will soon rise. So, I walked in hope to his grave. Still sad, still grieving and missing him, but with full confidence and hope.
I also feel it is good for Christians to walk through cemeteries from time to time. As you walk through one, all you can think about is people who have left this life, their money, their possessions, and their families. You can’t bury anything with you to make it go with your soul into eternity. It’s a good reminder to see a headstone that states a beginning and and end date, knowing the time is coming for all of us. I walked passed some graves that held people who have died over 150 years ago. One hundred and fifty. You look around and wonder, who will rise and be in Glory forever with God, or who were the ones who rejected the Lord and will rise to judgment. God has given you a beginning date, and God has given you and end date. For Christians, it’s just a reminder that we are passing through this world, and heaven is our home, and it’s coming soon. It’s a reminder that no matter how much money we make, or don’t make, our outcome is still the same: we will pass away, and we will not take any of our hard earned (God-given) money, period. We will not take our wardrobe. We will not take our cars. We will not take our houses. When you walk through a cemetery, those things feel temporary, as they should. When I say it’s good for Christians, I mean it’s good for us because it reminds us of the only thing we can depend on; Jesus Christ and how he took the complete punishment for our sin, and absolutely promises to forgive those who believe. That’s all we have to hold onto that is lasting, our promise for eternal life. We look at graves and see that everything else fails, they aren’t not lasting and we cannot take them with us. It’s tempting to love something so much here, to the point where you feel you could never part with it, but you will. You will part with your possessions. And it’s good! Believers in Jesus are going to Heaven! We won’t need them or love them! God gives us money and possessions for reasons now on this earth, but it’s only for this time, he doesn’t give you something so you can love it more than Him. Walk through a cemetery sometime soon, it was good for me.
I read this in my quiet time this morning from 1 John, John is writing to Christians about their hope of being children of God:
“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” 1 John 3:2
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