Where Danny grew up you can see for miles and miles and more miles. At night is especially so. The lights of Danny’s hometown can be seen from just outside the larger city, roughly 45 miles away. So it’s no surprise that we could see the yellow house of his aunt and uncle long before we got there. It has changed, but it remains the same. Good memories dwell in the yard and house. Our daughters’ first horse rides happened there along with other family fun.
One can also see the cemetery where his father is laid to rest long before you get there. His final resting place beside his parents isn’t far from another cemetery where many more family members’ have their final resting places.
But wait, is that really their final resting place? Of course not. The remains are there but the people we love are long gone to a much better place. While we put flowers on the graves to honor them, truth is they don’t have a clue of the things we do once they are gone.
Oh beloved, aren’t you glad that heaven is real? That your final “resting place” is alive and well? Oh grave, where is your sting? Don’t you think it’s time to take off your grave clothes? Don’t you think it’s time to prove the Scriptures true? Isn’t it time you forget what lies behind and get on with living this life without fear of the future, regrets of the past or concern about what happens after you’re gone?
With Jesus, death is already swallowed up in victory. So your life is victorious right now, right here, in spite of anything else going on. It’s time for you to grab ahold of Jesus, grab ahold of Scriptures and live out loud today. You didn’t wake yourself up and you don’t have the right to quit living just yet. God knows your life, the hurts, the pain, the wishes and the hopes – but His life for you is better than that. His life is best lived with an eye to eternity, but fully alive today. Forgiven, redeemed, blessed and full of hopeful joy! That’s you!
God loves you and He’s for you. Give yourself some flowers. Let yourself loose from the old life. Run to Jesus and ask Him to reveal His will for you and renew your hope today! And then live running with joy and living with purpose in the light of His mercy and grace.
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
I Corinthians 15:55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
Psalm 118:24 This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
1 Timothy 6:6-7 But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.
2 Peter 3:11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness