Our church hosted a three day First Love Conference this past weekend. Due to the weather and lack of transportation, I was only able to attend the final service Sunday evening. It was a wonderful worship experience and afterwards I had a chance to speak to the young pastors of our other two campuses and other good friends I had not seen in a while. Some have moved and attend other churches, while others simply attend earlier services than the noon service I normally attend. It was so good to catch up and reminisce with them all. It reminded me of a homecoming celebration or, more accurately, a family reunion.
My father didn’t have any brothers or sisters and his parents died when he was young. After my mother died when I was thirteen, we didn’t see my relatives on her side of the family very often. However, my stepmother had a large extended family and they would all get together for an annual family reunion on her brother’s farm. They welcomed my dad and me with open arms and we soon began to look forward to those times of great food, catching up and reminiscing.
When I think about my wife, mother, father, stepmother and all of the other Christian men and women who have been an instrumental part of my life over the years, I can’t imagine the thrill of reuniting with them all, as we worship together around God’s throne. Heaven will be an enormous family reunion with all of God’s children and I will have eternity to greet each of them with a hug, then catch up and reminisce with them. It boggles my mind to think that I will finally get to meet my Savior face to face and all of those others who I have never met, but have been inspired and blessed by their writings or life stories in scripture. I might even run into a few brothers and sisters who have read and been blessed by my blog.
Don’t get me wrong. I want to enjoy the fellowship with my brothers and sisters here for as long as God gives me breath. But as the writer of Hebrews reminds us, “For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.” (Hebrews 13:14) So I am just looking forward to that great homecoming celebration and family reunion someday that is beyond my wildest imagination. As a gospel song by the Goodmans says, “Look for me, for I will be there too.” I’ll be looking for you.