Gloria in excelsis Deo

Translated into English, this familiar phrase reads, "glory to God in the highest". The Latin is so much more beautiful!

It has been just over three years beloved, since my beautiful daughter left this Earth for her true home. Like us, she was a pilgrim and a stranger whose time here was, in my value system, too short. But oh how she enriched my life by her presence.

"Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset. Quickly fly the years". Tevya's song from Fiddler on the Roof rings all too true in a father's heart.

And then came to me the wakeup call.

Nancy and I were drinking coffee and enjoying the California sunshine on our deck last Saturday morning. She was reading the North County Times and I was reading Paul's first letter to the Church at Thessalonica.

Paul writes, "Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep,". Other places also speak of the death of a saint as falling asleep. In The Acts of the Apostles, Dr. Luke, in describing the death of Stephen, says, "When he had said this, he fell asleep".

Luke and Paul, writing under divine inspiration, were using something that we humans all understand in describing what it means when a christian dies. Luke and Paul are both in that condition "today", as is our beloved Valerie and all the Saints of God Most High throughout the ages.

We fall asleep at night. We wake up in the morning. Usually, we do not remember the passing of the time in between. Or, another similar experience that many of us have had. We have surgery. The anesthesiologist knocks us out. After perhaps several hours, he wakes us up and it seems like no time has passed at all.

If the saints are asleep, what time is the alarm set for? Paul gives us the answer. "God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him-----and the dead in Christ will rise first. after that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds". There is a wake-up call coming for us beloved. And on that day, the bodies of those who have fallen asleep will be transformed in the twinkling of an eye to be exactly like the glorious body of our Lord Jesus Christ. And in the second twinkle of that eye, the bodies of those saints who are still alive will be transformed. Says paul, "therefore encourage each other with these words".

You may argue, what about Lazarous and the rich man? What about Moses and Elijah meeting Jesus on the mount of transfiguration? What about that great cloud of witnesses referred to in Hebrews? These people weren't asleep were they? Yes they were.

When I wake up, occassionally I will remember a dream. When these saints wake up, they too will remember these events as dreams. The only difference is that their dream was actually an assignment from God to perform a specific task.

The end of this matter beloved, is that when Val wakes up tomorrow morning, so will I.

GodSpeed to all who confess Jesus as Lord of all.