The Final Foe

"Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.  "In My Fathers house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.  "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.  "And where I go you know, and the way you know."  Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going, and how can we knw the way?"  Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me."  "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him."  Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us."  Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip?  He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'show us the Father'?  "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?  The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.  "Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves."
John 14:1-11 NKJV

It's been called the final episode, cashing in, kicking the bucket.  Whatever we use to refer to it, it is indeed the final obstacle we as immortal creations must face.  There is but one who has overcome it and lived, the man Christ Jesus.  For the scripture tells us of Jesus that "Death no longer has dominion over Him" {Romans 6:9}.  Indeed, it is the very fear of dying which often consumes us.  Whether it is the fear of facing the unknown or the fact that this life which we have lived for however long we are here is about to end, the fear of death is all too real.  We know of nobody who has "Cheated" death and survived.  Once it arrives, it will not leave until it claims its bounty.  What is it that awaits us on that other side?  Darkness, gloom, paradise?  It seems that with the fear of death comes the fear of the unknown.  But what of the one who faced the unknown of death and lived?  For we also know that Christ, when facing His own death, asked the Father to "Let this cup pass from Me" in the garden of Gethsemene {Matthew 26:39}.  Jesus knew the path He had to follow, and despite a moment where we see the "flesh" of Jesus question His death, He once again submits to His Fathers plan.  Yet, we know that Jesus, having been crucified, rose again from the dead.  It is through Him that we can know just what lies before us when we face that final foe.

"Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth, and danced the skies on laughter - silvered wings; sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun - split clouds - and done a hundred things you have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence.  Hovering there I've chased the shouting wind along and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air.  "Up, up the long delerious burning blue I've topped the wind - swept heights with easy grace, where never lark, nor even eagle, flew; and, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod the high untrespassed sanctity of space, put my hand out and touched the face of God."
~High Flight written by John Gillespee Magee Junior~

I would submit that the fear of death is made easier for those who have made the decision to follow Christ Jesus.  Although it still has its sting upon our hearts, we know that what awaits us is that "House with many mansions."  For those of us who know Jesus, that fear of the unknown is a bit less unsettling.  For we know what it is that awaits us on the other side of this world we call life.  So confident are we in our beliefs, that we often comment on those who have gone before us that we shall indeed "See them once again."  I believe in the truth of this statement, for as Christ has told us, if it were not so, He would have told us.  And so our fear of that unknown has become the anticipation of what we already know.  This is none other than the revelation of Christ Jesus, the only man to rise from the dead.  In the days before the death of my mother, I often struggled with the reality of what I knew was coming.  I knew that she was a christian and a child of God, my struggle was with somehow convincing her of this, as if she had somehow forgotten.  However, I would soon learn that, as she had done so many times before, she could still minister to her son.  As I tried to get her to realize that she was indeed in Gods hands, she smiled and said, "Don't cry, God loves you."  In her heart, she already knew.

~Scott~