In my world travels, one island in the middle of the Pacific – Samoa - I spent several days there at that famous hotel owned by the American who met the American troops on the beach when they recaptured the island during World War II. (Aggie Grey Hotel) Sadie was still alive when I was there – a remarkable woman who made sure that this old veteran was treated well and had one of her employees escort me to a nearby church on Sunday morning. This was one of the highlights of my life, since I was in a state of depression at the time. When I went into this wood-framed building (I had about 10% vision in one eye at that time) it was filled with people dressed in white, all barefoot. I could not understand anything being sung but knew it was my grandmother's favorite hymn (What a Friend We Have In Jesus). The woman missionary, speaking in a real high-pitched voice, came down the aisle of the church to greet their visitors and she told me in English the verse for her message – Psalm 84:5. This verse has since become the cornerstone in my life because if we have the strength of Lord we can do, and indeed, can endure anything. How it grieves me to think of the tsunami, last week, that devastated that island.
My parents, probably due to so much hard work, were old early in life. A few months before my mother died at age 62, I took she and my father to their only daughter's home because my sister had a new baby girl. In my sister's beautiful home, she brought this new beautiful baby over and placed her into my mother's lap, as my father sat holding the baby's older brother. As I did many times in their later years, I watched them very closely. I could imagine what was going through my mother's mind as she looked at her first and only grand daughter. She would never live to see her in a school play (Salem College) or walk down the aisle in her wedding dress. But, she must have thought of the joys as well as disappointments which are in every girl's life. She knew the incomparable anticipation of life or death, of the joys that God has prepared for those who know Him, in children, grandchildren, friends and faith.
For many years, at my church, I would purchase a birthday cake each time one of the older ladies had a birthday. I would take my large crystal pedestal cake plate and make a big deal of her birthday at prayer meeting. I heard one of the oldest members (she had been a member of the church and had sat in the same pew for 86 years) say to another, “It will all soon be over and I can hardly wait.” This wonderful lady, like all of us, should have joy in the knowledge that we have an answer book in which we can find a solution to all of our problems. We, as God's children, should find great joy in hearing God's Word, in reading God's Word, believing in God's Word and singing the old hymns of our faith.
We have a right to anticipate God's blessings because He has promised us and He is a God of honor. We have a right to anticipate God's comfort, God's peace and God's reward because He is a God of honor. We do not have to convince God of our faith. We do not have to convince family or friends of our faith. We cannot hide it.
In the famous book by Dr. George Lofton, Character Sketches, we have the sermon Bed Too Short, Blanket Too Narrow. When you have the incomparable anticipation of faith in life and reward in death, something is always going to stick out. You cannot hide it.
From The Imitations of Christ, Book Three by Thomas à Kempis: “Grant me, O Lord, the grace to know what should be known, to praise what is most pleasing to You, to esteem that which appears most precious to You, and to abhor what is unclean in Your sight.”
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