For me and many other travelers, the hardest part of flying is the security check-in. We go through lines like cattle to be slaughtered. Hats, coats and shoes must come off. Everything we carry is looked over. We have to walk through a device that checks our bodies as well. It would be one thing if we could be assured this process was actually bringing us safety and security, but news reports remind us regularly that many dangerous things slip through unnoticed. Should we carry weapons such as cranberry sauce in a tin can, a fingernail clipper, or a letter opener, we will be pulled aside, more thoroughly searched, and then the offensive object discarded. All of this happens in a rush, with people behind wanting us to hurry along, and people in front holding up the line. It is frustrating and humbling. The best part of the screening process is when you are finished. Then, you are free to proceed. On international flights it seems each country you enter feels it has to put passengers through their version of this humbling process one more time. When I travel to India I usually have to go through 3 screenings going and 3 more returning home.
Suppose God put us through that kind of ordeal to let us into heaven? What if we had to be sinless and perfect in every thought and deed, or else the alarm would go off, and we would be pulled out of the procession line? What if we lined up with fear and uncertainty, thinking we had met all the criteria but were never completely sure. What if something we carried with us was misinterpreted?
Fortunately, the security check into heaven is much easier than the one at the airport. God’s mercy and love assures us that those who come by the way of the cross will assuredly enter. His plan to transform us and give us eternal bodies guarantees us full admittance without any holdup or doubt. There will be no pulling aside, no rushing to get through, no inconvenient questions to answer, no being taken out of line for more questioning. “Absent from the body is present with the Lord.” It will be instantaneous and complete… thank God for that! (January 16, 2016, adapted from April, 2005, Doylestown, PA)
“Absent from the body is present with the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 5:8
Do you fear death? Do you dread facing God? Are you concerned you may not make it into heaven? If you believe in Jesus you are as good as in – John 3:16 says so. Read the verse over and over until you have peace in God’s assurance of your spending eternity with Him!