The Blink of an Eye

I write these words at 4:57 PM on February 1st, 2020. But it is not 4:57 on February 1 in heaven. Intuitively, we know that. Heaven is timeless. There are no clocks and no calendars. I often think about that night in August when I learned of my mom’s sudden death. It’s been exactly 18 months since Mom died suddenly from a brain aneurysm. I don’t think as much of that night as I did in the first months after her death. And I know as the calendar pages continue to fall away, my mind will drift to that memory less and less. Of course, I will never forget the phone call. But the memories will fade – as they should. One of more remarkable memories I have is the voice message she left me six weeks before she died. She’d been visiting my sister and called to chit chat. After telling me about the weather, she said what I would soon learn was a message to me from God. She said, “Before you know it, in the blink of an eye, I’ll be standing before you.” In all her 40+ years as a Christian, I never heard her use that expression, “In the blink of an eye.” But there it is, saved on my voice messages. Through the apostle Paul, God tells us about Christ’s second coming. “It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed.” (1 Corinthians 15:52, NLT) No, it is not 4:57 PM on February 1, 2020 in heaven. For Mom, time no longer exists. Although it’s been for me exactly 18 months since her death, from her perspective, she just arrived at her eternal home. And because time does not exist in heaven, that also means when I die and stand before my Lord Jesus – whether that happens in twenty minutes or twenty years – from Mom’s perspective, it will only be for her “in the blink of an eye” when she is standing before me. Have you lost someone to death? Whether last week or 50 years ago, we have God’s blessed assurance that for the Christian who has passed, and the Christian who remains, it will be only a blink of an eye until you are reunited. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.