REUNION!

They’re fun. Reunions. Especially if you haven’t seen the others for a long time. I hadn’t. For over 18 years! The last I saw the Mathews was in India in the late eighties, when they were my neighbors. Almost two decades later, I saw them again last weekend, over Easter, in Sheffield, England.

Reunions! We chatted, laughed, sang old hymns (in English and Malayalam), ate (Indian food, of course!), went sight-seeing, took walks, attended church, listened to Mozart’s Krönungsmesse, discussed theology, talked medical stuff (both husband and wife are physicians) ….

Reunions! Delightful! There is a sense of restoration, akin to finding some part of yourself that was missing all these years. There is the joy of recognizing the growth in Christ, both in your own self and in your reunited compatriots. There is the pleasure in sharing what God is doing in each other’s lives.

But you know what? These are but mere reflections, evanescent shadows, of another grand reunion to be effected in the future, soon and very soon. Loved ones who have gone on before us, saints of all ages, brothers and sisters in the Lord—all physically reunited on that great and glorious day of Christ’s appearing.

For if we believe
that Jesus died and rose again,
even so God
will bring with Him
those who have fallen asleep
in Jesus.
Then we who are alive
and remain will be caught up
together with them in the clouds …

[And, of course, that awesome reunion between Redeemer and redeemed:]

… to meet the Lord in the air,
and so we shall always be
with the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 4:17–18

Always! ALWAYS!! We shall always be with the Lord! This is a perpetual reunion, unceasing, irreversible, eternal!

When we all get to heaven,
What a day of rejoicing that will be!
When we all see Jesus,
We’ll sing and shout the victory!
Eliza Hewitt, 1898

A day of ecstatic rejoicing, exhilarating rapture. A day that will never end! No more parting, no more death, no more grief, no more tears ….

And that’s not all, there appears to be a special reward for those who await that magnificent reunion with their Lord …

… in the future
there is laid up for me
the crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous Judge,
will award to me on that day;
and not only to me,
but also to all
who have loved His appearing.
2 Timothy 4:8

May we love His appearing, as we eagerly await our Savior and the blessed reunion that is coming. O may these days go by fast. After all we don’t belong here, pilgrims that we are, and bound for another kingdom, existing in another space-time continuum, governed by another constitution, ruled by another King—THE KING—our Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord!

For our citizenship is in heaven,
from which also
we eagerly wait for a Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ ....
Philippians 3:20

Even so, Lord Jesus, come! Maranatha!