Picture the scene… a classroom in a vibrant church in the Chicago suburbs. The date is March, 2010, and the context is a Sunday shortly after the death of my Mom. Grace Wolgemuth was a regular attender at the church, and loved by all who knew her.
Ruth Guillaume, my sister, was interacting with a number of friends in the classroom before the official beginning of the class. These were friends who loved my Mom, and who cared deeply about doing and saying the right thing in the context of this loss.
Because these individuals knew both my Mom, and my Dad, who had passed away eight years before, they were salving the wound of loss by speculating on what must be going on beyond the pale of life on earth.
They were doing so, as we likely have all done, in an effort to warm and soften the situation. The speculation revolved around whether my Mom and Dad had been reunited. A question I’ve pondered as well.
“What do you think that reunion was like?”
“How would it happen?”
Grief small talk. I’ve certainly been there. Doing my best to bring comfort, by detouring around lament and awe. Avoiding the cosmic realities of death.
While the speculative dialog continued in my sister’s classroom, a comment was inserted by a thoughtful and wise “outsider”. Someone who had simply overheard the cluster of comments being made.
His eight words spoke volumes. They still do…
“Grace hasn’t gotten up off her face yet.”
While many of us are tempted to make Heaven like a grand and glorious high school reunion, it is far from that. Nothing close, in fact.
Perhaps we’ve tended to think of the entrance into Heaven as a grand narthex at the back of the church where folks meander about with names tags on. “Hi, my Name Is Grace Wolgemuth”, as Grace surveys the crowd looking for a familiar face.
No.
Not close.
We’ve made God our buddy, our companion, our homey, our BFF… but don’t be fooled. He is God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. One God, three persons. Awe producing. Reverential awe inducing. Face to the ground, breathless wonder. God.
The Apostle Paul captures our encounter with Jesus well in Philippians 2…
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (ESV)
On our face. The only appropriate response. Involuntary worship, because He is worthy and overwhelming.
“Grace hasn’t gotten up off her face yet…”
All of us. Faces down. Hearts nearly exploding. Awe.
Yes… prepare to be “wowed”. Every knee. Every face to the ground. Speechless wonder. That is what awaits those who in flawed and feeble ways commit their lives, allegiance and reverence to Jesus while they still have breath to breathe. The sons and daughters of the King. On our faces together.
He is God. Nothing less.
Jesus came once to hang on a cross, when next we see Him, He will be on a throne.
Worship will be our only righteous response. Yes, on our face… no name tags necessary.
And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The LORD, he is God; the LORD, he is God.” (1 Kings 18:39)
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