GodReflection: God Breaks In Monday
“It is good to be home.”
As a lifelong road warrior, with over 2 million miles traveled, I have uttered that statement to my wife and children countless times.
Roadwork is weary work.
Our family gathered last week to bury my Uncle Melvin’s body.
The gathering wasn’t so much about the burial as it was about our remembrances and our honor to one who loved God and us as family for the past eighty-eight years.
Uncle Melvin’s roadwork is complete. He finished as a weary traveler.
How Melvin must enjoy being home.
In thinking about the words of honor and hope I was to provide at the graveside, the visual picture of the Memorial Garden with all of its beautiful granite and marble markers begin to grow in my mind.
It seemed fitting for the setting to be a well-cared for garden with a monument to make the focal point for our memories, our hopes, and our anticipation for the next reality.
I like the idea that the memorial stone that will mark the grave represents past, present and future.
The stone can help me to stay in touch with the past. I can go to the garden from time to time and stand at the base of the memorial to honor and remember Melvin’s life.
It will be a setting for me to remember the good times I had with my uncle and his family. I can stand and reflect on how he loved God, his own family, and how he blessed me and others.
In the present tense I am reminded that my uncle now rests with God, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and Saints of the ages.
There is a sense that we both hold incomplete journeys in common. We still wait for the return of Jesus to take us to the city of God. His earthly walk is complete. I continue on the trail.
It’s a setting where I can join in his present to wait for the time when all will be made new.
I love the idea of standing at the base of the memorial stone to envision the future.
For my Uncle Melvin the future will be even more spectacular than his current rest.
I lack vocabulary and understanding to express my wonder at the future of living in the eternal with all things made new on a restored earth underneath God’s restored heaven.
It will be more than my fallen brain can possibly envision.
In the presence of God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I will live in God’s final reality of a new garden without pain. A garden where those we love don’t die and leave holes in our souls.
It is my greatest desire for all of us to be home at last. God breaks into a memorial marker in a garden here on earth to remind me that we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. (2 Corinthians 5)
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21)
Stay tuned.
Dr. Gary J. Sorrells – A GodReflection on God Breaks Into Memorial Markers.
God Reflection 
Thank you, Gary.
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