Yesterday was my dad's funeral. It seems like yesterday that I was just a kid, helping my dad and my grandpa put up hay on the farm. Being a kid, I got to stack the hay on the hay wagon as my dad and my grandpa tossed the bales on board. Gone are the days of living on the farm. Now, we just visit the farm. Any work done in the fields is done by somebody else. Where has all the time gone?
There were several people at the service yesterday who I hadn't seen in years. LOTS of years. The wife of my old Scout master, the parents of a childhood friend, and a kid I hadn't seen since she was three. She is now in her thirty's!
Where does the time go!? We can remember so many different people and events from our childhoods as if they were yesterday, but in reality, they were ages ago.
Did you ever see the movie Somewhere In Time? In the movie a young writer goes back in time 100+ years to meet a woman he fell in love with in a present-day picture. What if we could travel back in time like that and meet people in their prime or meet relatives we've never even seen?
Yesterday as I looked out the front door of the funeral home, a big old house on the east side of town, I thought for a moment that I myself was somewhere back in time. The number of the stars on the flag flying out front seemed to be less, the cars flying by on the paved road out front were replaced in my mind by horse drawn carriages on a dirt road. I started thinking of all the people who were entering the funeral home in terms of who they had been rather than who they are today.
God can see all those things. God is what is known as omnipresent. He can be in all places at all time's. He has always been and He always will be. He was there when the world was formed, He will be there when it comes to an end. He has seen every birth and every death of all mankind. Think about that!
Probably the coolest thing that happened at my dad's funeral was performed by a dozen men I didn't even know - the local chapter of the VFW. My sister-in-law came into the main room and said, "You have GOT to see this!" So I went out into the lobby and there all these veterans, dressed in uniform, all gathered to pay tribute to my dad, a navy veteran.
One by one these men came and stood next to my father's casket and saluted him. Very moving. I found myself thinking about each of those men and the battles they had seen, the struggles in their lives, the joys. God knows all those things.
What would it be like to go back in time and see all those men in their prime. To see my dad in his prime! Yeah, that would be nice, but we can't do that. But God can.
He saw when you were born. And here's a tough one - he has already seen your death. He has already seen every one of your triumphs and mistakes. He has seen all of your sins yet He still loves you and wants you to be with Him in heaven one day. Despite all that, God has given you the option to choose whether you want that or not.
My father had many people attend his memorial service. Not all of them have chosen to believe in the God who gave them life. That's there choice . . . their option. Yet God sent His Son to die for them anyway.
Sometime in the future we all will get to meet Jesus. What will we look like? Will we be our old wrinkled selves? Or will time be gentle and will we appear before Him in our prime? Time . . . will tell.
Do you know Jesus? I pray that you do. Only by placing our faith in the One True God can we be assured of eternal life. You will get to see your grandparents again, your childhood friends. But most importantly, you will get to see Jesus, who loves you unconditionally and without end. His love transcends time. His love for you. We all will meet Him, somewhere in time.
"Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD." - Jeremiah 23:24
Somewhere in Time Theme - John Barry and Roger Williams
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