I was walking through the woods the other day and stepped on something that was sticking up out of the ground. It was a turtle shell. I went on to my deer stand and while I was sitting there waiting for old grandpa big buck to show up, I thought about it for a time.
It reminded me of funerals and how strange it really is for us to put our departed loved ones on display in a coffin for all to see. I assume it’s done as a lame attempt to provide one final “look” at the departed prior to burial.
The problem is we aren’t looking at our loved one; instead we are merely viewing their shell. I must admit too that the shell never does its former inhabitant justice. It’s just not the same. I’m ugly enough alive and don’t want to be displayed in a worse position, but I suppose that is being vain and in the end it is up to my loved ones to do with me as they like when it’s my time to go toe up.
News flash: I didn’t find a turtle; I found a turtle shell; the turtle was gone!
The same is true with us. When we take our final breath, we immediately depart our shell and head out to our final destination which will be located either in heaven or hell.
I have a writer friend who told me it’s bad to use two metaphors to make a solitary point and that I should never do it. Bah! I’m a rebel. While I was on my deer stand I also thought about those creepy looking nasty caterpillars. They slink around like strange looking worms or grubs with a myriad of creepy legs and spiny skin, and they spend significant time building a foul looking little home for themselves called a cocoon, and when it’s finished they snuggle up in it to try and catch up on some Z-z-z-z-z’s.
They slumber for a while and then awaken to head out to work, (just as they’ve done for their entire short lives). But something is different this time and they quickly discover that instead of slinking along in their former creepy larva-like fashion, they are now lifted up high on glorious wings. And while they soar through the bluebird skies, and happen to look down and see their reflection in Honey Lake, they see that they are no longer their former slimy, worm-like, selves, but instead are now gorgeous butterflies and possess breathtaking, Cinderella-like, beauty as though they had been hand-painted by God Himself.
(Yep another metaphor – I’m a rebel – pray for me I can’t seem to stop)
The Bible tells us that we were created to live forever. Yesterday I was asked to speak to a group of folks on a corporate retreat at Honey Lake and during my talk I made that point, and then I left for Orlando where I spoke to another group of folks who owned automobile dealerships in central Florida and made the same point to them.
Now I’m making it to you. Why am I hammering away on it? Because death is not something that should be feared, in fact it doesn’t even exist except in our minds. It is a lie perpetuated by the original liar, satan. What Christians experience is not death, it is something very similar to a butterfly-like metamorphosis. (For you who flunked biology that means transformation.) We leave our shells and enter paradise where we will be adorned in our “glorified bodies”. Unlike butterflies though, we will inhabit our glorified bodies and live forever in them.
So my point with my excessive metaphors today is that death should not be feared. The Bible states that for believers to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. The saddest thing that I can think of is an unbeliever’s funeral. In Proverbs 14:32 we read, “The wicked are crushed by disaster, but the godly have a refuge when they die”. The Bible states that we are all “wicked” and no one is free from sin; that includes Billy Graham, Mother Teresa, the Apostle Paul, you, and me.
So if that is the case, how can any of us take on wings like a butterfly? Er-r…eagle?
A friend of mine Jack Murphy, (Murf the Surf), told me yesterday that he designed his Bible tract to begin with: “For God so loved the world…” Therein is the answer. We need to understand that grace begins with God’s unfathomable love for us and it is that love that provided the key, (the blood of Jesus), to unlock the gate that allows entry into paradise.
God loves us so much that He sent His Son to live a perfect life free from sin and wickedness and then He took the punishment for our sins. It is the blood that He shed that day that makes us clean and white as new born lambs in the eyes of God, (who is holy and cannot tolerate sin that has not been adequately punished to be allowed in His presence).
When one of the criminals being put to death on a cross next to Christ put his faith in Jesus and asked to be remembered, Jesus told him “This DAY you will be in paradise with Me”, (emphasis mine). This tells us that there is no waiting around for salvation for those of us who accept Christ as their Savior; no fifteen Hail Mary’s have to be said, no perfect attendance in Bible study must be performed, and no Baptism in the Jordan River must be accomplished. This is because it is what JESUS did on the cross that opens the door to heaven, and it is faith in Him that allows us to enter heaven and not any good we might do in this short life. (With that said, once we accept Christ we will change and demonstrate our love for Him by doing good as best we know how).
And as for that other sinner that was on the cross with Jesus that day, well he decided to taunt and make fun of Christ and reject Him. Unfortunately he is residing in hell today, where according to the words of Jesus there is weeping and gnashing of teeth in a tortured, dark, lonely, solitary existence, eternally separated from God.
I believe that there were three on the cross that day, (not one, two, or four, but three) to illustrate a poignant statement that is quintessential to God’s plan. It is called free will. We have a choice to put our faith in Jesus or in ourselves. One man chose Christ and entered paradise; the other put his faith in himself and rejected Christ and entered hell. We have that same choice today.
Choose wisely my good friends, because we never know when our metamorphosis is scheduled to occur. It might even be today…
Have a great weekend and go to church this Sunday!
2 Cor. 1:9
Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.