HOMEGOING!

I will miss him! Whether it was to help me with my constant car problems and computer troubles, or to organize the celebrations for my graduation from seminary, or to collect empty boxes to help me move, or to go out to eat Indian food on a whim, my servant-hearted friend, Ramesh, was always available. He went home to be with the Lord this week. He arrived. For death is …

… to be absent from the body
and to be at home with the Lord.
2 Corinthians 5:8

Free from the fetters of this physical body and its flaws; free from the ravages of disease; free from those IVs and drugs and monitors; free from travail and turmoil of life. But there is one more thing—more important than all of these—from which Ramesh is now free. The Bible calls it sin.

… for all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:23

And the result of sin is eternal separation from God who is holy. For God’s holiness is so absolute and so infinite and so perfect, that no fellowship with anything tainted with sin is possible for Him.

But your iniquities
have made a separation
between you and your God.
Isaiah 59:2

Not only is this a major problem for us, it was a “problem” for God, too. On the one hand God’s perfect justice demanded that the price of sin be paid—eternal separation from Him. On the other, His love sought to bring us to Him, to forgive and to have mercy. The Bible declares that God solved this dilemma: Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, paid the price of our sins by His death and resurrection.

For God so loved the world,
that He gave
His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him
shall not perish,
but have eternal life.
John 3:16

Because Ramesh believed that Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, died and was resurrected for his sins, as the Bible teaches, he now has fellowship with God eternally. He has arrived home! Home with Jesus Christ in heaven. Arrived home, to be with the Lord. Forever. At peace.

And [God] will wipe away
every tear from their eyes;
and there will no longer
be any death;
there will no longer
be any mourning, or crying, or pain.
Revelation 21:4

I had the privilege of visiting Ramesh in the hospital several times in these past two weeks. One of my joyous memories of those times is that of the giggles of his daughters, as they snuggled together with their Dad. Giggles and tears, and often together. Only believers can giggle and weep at the same time in the face of death. Only those with the hope of eternal life can cry “Hallelujah” through the gloom of death and the blur of grief. Giggles and tears. While we grieve our earthly loss, we rejoice over the certainty of an eternity together. Giggles through tears, laughter amidst weeping. Because we know where Ramesh is. He’s arrived home.

Let me ask you: Do you know for sure that you are going home to heaven when you die? The free gift of salvation is yours for the taking. As with all gifts, this, too, needs to be accepted. We need to respond:

Believe in the Lord Jesus,
and you will be saved.
Acts 16:31

Have you accepted that free gift, believing in the privacy of your heart that Christ died for your sins and rose on the third day? If you have, you, too, will be headed home one day. Would you place your trust in Christ? Today?