Until Heaven Takes Us Home

Death is easily the largest fear of anyone and perhaps anything on earth. Our instinct tells us to survive. Our mind tells us we don't want to die. I just watched a video clip by Frances Chan, a pastor and author of Crazy Love, who talked about the difference between a Christian's funeral and a non-Christian's funeral. He talked about how there was joy in a Christian's funeral and not so much in a non-Christian's funeral. The day before I saw this video I was at a wedding in Brentwood, Tennessee. My cousin Karen her husband Dan had an interesting end to their vows. The end was not "Until death do us part." It was "Until heaven takes us home." To attempt to make clear what I am trying to say I am going to start at the beginning. Why do we fear death? In my opinion it is because it is the only thing that can completely take us away from our little planet. (With the exception of Enoch and Elijah who were taken up by God without dying.) Death originated from sin. God told Adam and Eve they would surely die if they ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And, a long time later, they died. Even Jesus feared death. He asked the Father if there was any other way to save the sins of the world and was stressed and worried to the point of sweating blood. We know when Jesus is sweating blood over the thought of death that death is most definitely the scariest thing in the world.
Should it be? Shouldn't we be looking to where death is taking us instead of where it is taking us from? I am not saying we should live to die. I don't want to go jump off a cliff and die because I want to go to heaven. I am saying that if we are saved by the grace of God (For those of you who don't like churchy words: we were really messed up but God gave us forgiveness we didn't deserve) we should not wallow in fear of death. We should live to give God all we have and leave our life in God's hands.
It is easy to forget about the love of God that set us free from perhaps the scariest death of all. To me, seperation from earth is very scary, but seperation from God is absolutely terrifying. I find that God's love is best described this way: Say you lived in Russia in the early 20th century. Joseph Stalin, one of the most wicked men of all time, has killed your entire family. He also killed your friends and blew away anything you ever knew. He took away any reason for you to live. Then, one day, you get to meet this guy. You walk up to him (now keep in mind that you are supposed to hate this guy) and tell him, "I forgive you and I will love you no matter what you do." Why would you do that? In reality, neither you or me would ever think about doing that. Most would probably want to kill him. But that is what God does. We take all the love He has shown us and we stomp on it. We disregard His love. We leave Him absolutely no reason to love us at all. But what did He do? He says to us (now keep in mind that He is supposed to hate us for what we did to Him) , "I forgive you and I will love you no matter what you do."
By now your mind is probably not following anything I am saying at all. Bud Taylor was probably one of my favorite people on earth. He was kind, he was a servant, and was a follower of God. He had hard times in his life. I do not know when he accepted Christ but I do know he did and lived for Him the rest of his life. He was a coal miner--tough to the core. He served in the military. He served in his church. When he moved from the hills of West Virginia to the flat town of Portage, Indiana, he served the Lord. When his wife died. He pressed on and continued to serve. He married again and continued serving the Lord in Mustang and Stillwater, Oklahoma. Anyone who knew him would tell you of his service and hard work. Bud Taylor was my grandpa. He survived bypass surgeries and colon cancer, but esophogal cancer took his life in December of 2004. His funeral was one of the most joyful funerals I have ever been to. Yes, there were many tears, but the joy of knowing that God's love had given him life in heaven overtook those tears. Because of God's love, the sin that has existed since Adam and Eve was not able to conquer him. Heaven took my grandpa home.
Will we still fear death? Definitely. But we will have peace. The Bible tells us to "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful." (Colossians 3:15 NIV) I am determined to give God all I got. His love is greater than death. Nothing in all of creation, including death, can seperate us from the love of God. I give Him all of my life. I strive here on earth with all of His energy, as we all should until heaven takes us home.