Tag: heaven

Graduation: Moving Up

~ Barbara ~ 4 Comments

We just returned from Tennessee for our grandson’s high school graduation. I was surprisingly stirred on several levels.

Graduation, from a school (or a feat of any kind), speaks of leaving the past and moving forward to something more, something better. The satisfaction of accomplishment collides with expectation and hope. I find it all quite emotional, beginning with the processional.

“Pomp and Circumstance” always moves me, and I must not be alone because it’s been played at graduations since 1905. The music is celebratory and triumphant. Like every grandparent in the arena, my eyes sought only one graduate in the processional.

The students’ addresses in Tennessee, 2025, echoed other graduation speeches I’ve heard, sprinkled with teen emotion. When they speak of the challenges they’ve survived, the lows and hard times, I kind of cringe. They have no idea! I don’t downplay the angst of the teen years, but I’m well aware that the hardships they’ll likely face as adults will be far heavier. But I digress, back to the second-best part of the graduation—the tassels!

I love the move of the tassel from the right to the left. I can’t even describe why. I just know it touches me. And then the tossing of the hats—the pure, uninhibited joy of it!

When I reflected on the ceremony and the emotion of it, I thought about the graduation in my future.

  • I thought about triumphant music accompanying Christ’s return.
  • I savored the realization that I was leaving behind all hardship and pain.
  • I imagined moving a metaphorical tassel to indicate absolute separation from my old life and entrance to my new life.
  • I saw hosts of “graduates” throwing down their crowns before the Lord of Lords.

The celebration of any graduation—high school, college, or beyond—is a mild foretaste of the joy that awaits us. (Even as I wrote this post, I couldn’t help smiling.)

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise… to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 
Therefore encourage one another with these words.
I Thessalonians 4:16-18

Image by Gillian Callison from Pixabay

A Heart Set on Pilgrimage

~ Barbara ~ Leave a comment

Pilgrimage is a curious word. When we grasp its concept, it will enrich our perspective and allow us to attune our spirits to what is eternal and put the temporal in its rightful place. Our choice is to live for now, enjoying its pleasures and accepting its challenges, or we travel through life toward an unfathomable destination awaiting us.

In 1678, John Bunyan wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress, an allegory describing a man named Christian and his journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. Christian overcomes many obstacles and resists temptations because he is astutely aware that life is a journey and his destination is real.

When our hearts are set on pilgrimage, like Christian, we look forward to our future with confidence and have strength for the journey to get there.

We find benefits of a pilgrimage perspective in Psalm 84:5-7:

  • Our strength is in God. We are not meandering on earth, stumbling and fumbling, but have supernatural strength to survive and thrive despite obstacles and disappointments.
  • When we meet sorrow, we pass through our valley of weeping—it is not our destination. Rather than camping there, we turn it into a place of life-giving springs!
  • We increase in strength, step by step and day by day, because we press forward to our eternal destiny.
  • We will appear before God. Our tears will be wiped away, our sorrows erased, and our hearts made glad.

 Fellow journeyers, persist and move forward with your hearts set on pilgrimage.

There is a River

~ Barbara ~ 1 Comment

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy place where the Most High dwells.
Psalm 46:4

I whisper to my soul, “There is a river,” and my heart stills. With those simple words, I am assured, satisfied, quieted. As an earthly resident of a heavenly city, I treasure the assurances I find in the following verses of Psalm 46.

  • “God is within her, she will not fall.” The kingdoms of this world are in tumult—wars erupt and evil devastates the land and its people. But there is a city of peace where God dwells and prepares for our arrival. I see hints of it in the rivers that flow out of it and reveal God’s grace.
  • “God will help her at break of day.” Every morning God is present to support us, to show us His lovingkindness, and to give us guidance and strength. He keeps us safe until the day we go home and see Him.
  • “Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; He lifts his voice, the earth melts.” Chaos seems to reign on earth—it is undeniably present, but it is not sovereign, God is. The warfare that rages is not against a nation’s armies or our “enlightened” political ideologies, but against evil forces that are not human. All these kingdoms will fall and then… God will lift His voice and, at His word, the world as we know it will melt.

There will be a new world. Our life will be one of peace, and joy, and remarkable revelations of truth. All will be made clear and beauty will abound. We will enter the city of God and drink from its streams because “There is a river,” and it will make us glad.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, 
since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:18

I am Thankful for my Future

~ Barbara ~ 1 Comment

I am thankful for my faith, my family, and my friends—and I am abundantly thankful for my future.

At this point in life, I’m acutely aware of two things—the speed of time and the frailty of life. This can distress me when I speak my age, look in a magnifying mirror, forget a name, or schedule another doctor’s appointment. I become reflective and longingly remember days of high energy, full schedules, and arthritis-free living. But mostly, I am thankful.

I look beyond the unknown length of my days and put weaknesses of body and mind in perspective. I don’t know when my years will end but I know when my life will begin!

I have a future with no expiration date. I will live it in a body made new. I will have no physical or mental limitations. Every longing of my soul will be met. Every wonder of nature will be explored. Every gift and talent will be exercised. Every new experience will be enjoyed.

I will see Jesus and the fulness of His love! I will worship God in all His glory and be amazed! I will laugh with my daughter, walk with my parents, converse with the saints!

So as the days pass, I will not regard time as the waning of life, but as the nearing of perfect life. I will silence whispers of disappointment and align my perspective with truth. I will count on God’s faithfulness and savor His favor. And my heart will swell because of the future that awaits me.

I am thankful for my Future.

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard…
the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
1 Corinthians 2:9