MY PERSPECTIVE, Gary Damron
This week our church experienced two losses, and the pastor has been involved with two memorial services. One person, Tom, was a little older than I; he was a faithful pastor, youth camp director, and respected scholar who died after a long illness. The other was years younger, and his passing was sudden and shocking. All this week, folks have spoken of Logan's positive, friendly interactions, even up to the last time we saw him Sunday playing bass guitar.
These are called "losses", but their deaths mean that they and other believers have transitioned to a home in heaven. Several have mentioned Logan's impaired eyesight. The vision that came to me was that all who share faith haven't really lost anything. Soon we'll be with them, worshiping together in an indescribable place, with new bodies and purified spirits.
There's an Old Testament account about how God called an elderly man named Abram to leave everything that was familiar and to "go" (Genesis 12:1-3). He wasn't told where he would be going, but he and his wife and a few others packed up and went.
Along the journey, Abram was promised a son (Genesis 15:1-6), and he and Sarah became parents in their old age. The birth of their baby gave new life, new meaning, new purpose, and the Lord changed his name to Abraham (Genesis 17:5).
The boy grew, probably into his teen years. But then comes a scripture that puzzles and troubles many. "Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, 'Abraham!' And he said, 'Here I am.' He said, 'Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you'" (Genesis 22:1-2).
We can read in the rest of Genesis chapter 22 how God intervened, and the boy was spared. Oswald Chambers, in "My Utmost for His Highest", wrote about Abraham's binding Isaac on the altar. "This incident is a picture of the blunder we make in thinking that the final thing God wants of us is the sacrifice of death." God didn't desire a dead boy on an altar; rather, He wanted Isaac alive, a living sacrifice. This child of promise would over time lead to twelve tribes of Israel, and a lineage of millions, all the way to Jesus.
Abraham had phenomenal faith, ready to sacrifice what was surely most precious to him. We who are alive are also called to be a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1-2).
Our pastor's message last week - the last sermon Logan heard - was from Genesis chapter 3, after Adam and Eve sinned. God came walking in the garden in the cool of the day and asked, "'Where are you?'" Of course, God knew where they were, but He wanted them to evaluate their location and their relationship.
In the passage from Genesis chapter 22, the prophetic connections of Jesus the Lamb, our sacrifice, are all evident. Abraham answered three times, "'Here I am'" to similar queries: when God tested him (verse 1); when Isaac asked about the sacrifice (verse 7); and when the angel of the Lord twice called his name and stayed his hand (verse 11). In that instant, Abraham knew where he was - standing at an altar, willing to sacrifice even his son. Each of us should ask ourselves, where are we? Are we willing?
The continuation of this remarkable story: "Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son. Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide..." Then came a voice from heaven, "'...because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; ... In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice'" (Genesis 22:13-18).
There's an old Newsboys song with lyrics, "He gives and takes away", a concept that troubles some. But we can trust our sovereign God. When He takes, it's for our benefit, and He always gives something better. While we're here on earth, fellowshipping with others like Tom and Logan, we're living with eternity on our minds and in our hearts. When we all reach heaven, we'll be more Christlike in His presence. Logan will have perfect eyesight, I'll be able to sing tenor again, and in all ways we'll be better people.
Jesus the Messiah was present at creation (John 1:1). Through countless generations, the writer of Hebrews says, "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son" (Hebrews 1:1-2). He came to earth as a baby, became our redeemer through His perfect sacrifice, and lives today to share new life.
