This has been a very blue week here at the Beckett abode. We had to put our beloved Roxie down – our thirteen-year-old Maltese. I cried till my heart hurt. Our Roxie was older than our two youngest granddaughters and she had become a fixture in the family. She was just a mere seven-week-old puppy when I brought her home; she snuggled into the palm of my right hand as I drove with my left. Always so sweet and cute and loving, she had a quirky little smile that she’d throw out there whenever she wanted to be mischievous plus cute, and it melted our hearts every time. This morning when I fed Boogie, our two-year-old Coton, I had to miss Roxie all over again, as only one bowl of food went down on the kitchen floor. And Boogie misses his Roxie – how do your tell your other dog/person what’s happened?!
But time is a wonderful healer, and even though we will eventually bring home another puppy, there will never be another Roxie. She is truly irreplaceable! But that being said, I couldn’t help but think this week that people are even more irreplaceable, treasured, and invaluable. Matthew 10:29-31 gives us unique insight into how God views His cherished creation: “What’s the price of a sparrow?
Some loose change, right? And God cares what happens to it even more than you do. He pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail – even numbering the hairs on your head… you’re worth more than a million sparrows!” Every life is so precious to God; each of us is unique and one-of-a-kind. No one will ever walk this earth who is exactly like you! To that, I suppose, we can all breathe a sigh of relief! But seriously, each one of us is priceless to God, and it’s very easy to lose sight of our immeasurable worth to Him.
So how valuable are we to God? Our value must be measured by what God was willing to do to save us, and we’re not talking a million dollars here. People may buy your time by the hour, but God has paid for your life by His blood. I Corinthians 6:20 teaches us that “we were bought with a price” and Galatians 3:13 goes on to say that “Christ bought us with His blood…He absorbed the curse completely as He became a curse in our place.”
But wait! There’s even more great news! Hebrews 12:2 has told us that “Because His heart was focused on the joy set before Him, of knowing that you would be His, He endured the agony of the cross…” Wow! Did you catch all that? Jesus suffered through the agony of death on a cross, knowing that it would bring you and I eternal salvation, if we choose to receive the free gift. He loves us and desires to spend eternity with us that much!! That’s huge! John Rice rightly quipped, “Those who go to Heaven ride on a pass and enter into blessings that they never earned.”
Joe Louis aptly observed that “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.” But all of us, someday, will face that day, and as minister Matthew Henry (1662-1714) stated: “He whose head is in heaven need not fear to put his feet into the grave.”
One notable person who was well aware of his eternal status was Winston Churchill and Churchill was one of those rare individuals who planned his own funeral. He requested many of the great hymns of the church and used moving Anglican liturgy. At his request, following the benediction, a bugler, positioned high up in the dome of Saint Paul’s, filled the church with the sound of “Taps” – the universal strain signaling the day has ended.
But then came a thrilling turn – Churchill had instructed that after “Taps” had concluded, another bugler, staged on the other side of the great dome, was to play “Reveille” — “It’s time to get up. It’s time to get up. It’s time to get up in the morning!” As someone noted, “Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people” and Churchill was definitely prepared and ready for his dawn!
I don’t know for sure whether or not my sweet Roxie will be with us when Reveille is sounded – the Bible is silent on this subject – but I personally believe God will give us the desires of our heart, and we already know that nothing is impossible for Him, so why not?! But, my advice to you is, just make sure you yourself don’t miss out on this wondrous trip of a lifetime! We all have a one-way ticket to eternity. Destination – our choice!
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Bob and Susan Beckett pastor The Dwelling Place City Church at 27100 Girard Street in Hemet, Ca. For more information, you can visit them at http://DPCityChurch.org
Susan Beckett | The Dwelling Place City Church
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