The Journey's End

My wife and I went to see a very dear friend yesterday who is in an a hospice inpatient unit.  She was frail, she was weary and she was just a slip of her former self.  But she was not defeated, she was victorious.  She did not talk of coming to. An end but of reaching her destination.  Rather than someone who was finished, she was someone who was crossing the finish line.  Our dear friend was not going away, she was arriving home (2:19).

As we prepared to leave, we did not say goodbye, but instead said, "We'll catch up with you later.  We know where you're going."  We know, as she knows, that her death is very close but that only means that her life is finally about to begin in earnest.  She is about to leave the battle field and return home to receive a victor's crown (Js 1:12).

There was a sweet sadness as we were leaving because we knew that we would be staying behind for now and be deprived of her presence for a time.  Even though we know the glory awaiting her, there is still the journey ahead of us.  It is a little bit like sending your child off to college.  As happy as you are for them to be able to go, you are sad that you will be separated from them.

But, in the end, there is no doubt that going is much better than staying and for that we rejoice.  Our friend and we can rejoice in a time like this for one simple reason: We know Jesus Christ as Lord.  Because of that relationship, we know where she is going and we know the way there.  This is the promise upon which we all, as Christians rest:

John 14:1-4 NIV
[1] “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God ; believe also in me. [2] My Father's house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? [3] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. [4] You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Jus' Say'n.