A Land that is Fairer Than Day
Hebrews 11:12-16 (NRSV) 12 Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, “as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.”
13 All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, 14 for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.
Ephesians 2:4-9 (NRSV) 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast.
Hebrews 11 is known as the Roll Call of Faith, Old Testament figures who were saved not by works, not by the sacrifices of bulls and lambs, but through their faith in the coming Messiah. We who are confined by the constraints of time may find it difficult to understand how the eternal God reached back in human history to provide salvation through Jesus prior to His sacrifice. Yet, there is only one way to salvation, and that is by faith in Jesus Christ. If we restrict the saving grace of Jesus to a moment in time, then we are making Him too small, for indeed the grace that saved you and me existed from the foundation of the world.
I sometimes think of time as being a great wheel, and the spokes are moments in time, while God is the hub. And I imagine God looking in one direction, and He sees a universe devoid of life. But He shifts His gaze and one of the spokes reveals creation, while yet another shows a great flood, and still another the Cross. And on one spoke, God sees the place that Jesus has prepared for us in heaven. It is a place that only becomes visible to us as we near the end of this life, and the veil is partially lifted.
As a pastor, I have sat at the bedside of many saints as they took their last breaths. I was blessed to minister to them and their families as we shared Holy Communion one last time and we spoke the Lord’s Prayer together. For those who had struggled through pain, a peaceful countenance replaced the furrowed brow as the cares of this world were exchanged for a place in Paradise.
There’s a land that is fairer than day,
And by faith we can see it afar,
For the Father waits over the way
To prepare us a dwelling place there.
Refrain:
In the sweet by and by,
We shall meet on that beautiful shore;
In the sweet by and by,
We shall meet on that beautiful shore.
2 We shall sing on that beautiful shore
The melodious songs of the blest;
And our spirits shall sorrow no more-
Not a sigh for the blessing of rest. [Refrain] (Sanford Fillmore Bennett, 1868)
May we each have the faith of Abraham, the courage of David, and the conviction of Ruth as we travel the pathway of holiness toward our heavenly home.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Seeking Holiness 