The Chief End...Glorify Him Forever.

Death has really come to life for me lately. The testimony of the death of a friend, Andrew Mark, has really spoken to my soul as I've pondered and prayed for him and his family. Do pray for his wife if you would. I've told some of you about this, but some I haven't. He was 27, and I used to babysit for him and his wife regularly. I wrote out some of their love story from her old journals. I knew their testimonies. I constantly saw Christ's love for His Church as I saw them interact. I held their children in my arms, prayed through the cancer diagnosis with them at our Sunday School table every week, discussed God's sovereignty, discussed infant sleep schedules, ate with them, marvelled at how wonderful they were, did my homework on their couch til they came back from dinner out. And now he's gone. And now he's freed from pain. Because he doesn't have to worry about his cancer spreading, he doesn't have to feel the wound on his neck, he doesn't have to undergo horrid radiation. He doesn't have to fear the valley of the shadow. Our God saves. I just want to say that right now. And I think it's so odd how I can believe the Gospel and still be so sorrowful when a friend is closing his eyes and walking into glory. The last days he was on this earth, suffering in a hospital, it was always on my mind and in my prayers. And then once I knew he was freed, it was like the weight of the world had lifted and I could see it for what it really was. Heaven is real! Christ is on His throne, and Andrew Mark is now able to see Him and worship Him in a glorified state! That's something intensely amazing. I haven't had a lot of experience with death from this perspective. Most of the death I've seen was during my childhood, and I didn't know how to grieve, let alone rejoice in it. Thank God He reveals the truth to His children. He is so good to us. And I'm beginning--just beginning--to realize how it all fits into God being good to Himself. He is so far beyond our understanding of His glory, but He delights to make Himself known as much as we can understand Him, because He gives us the best--He gives us Himself. That's ultimately the most exciting end we could possibly face.