Reunion

 At some point, I’m assuming I’ll start getting letters in the mail about my High School reunion. I’m not certain as to how many years have to pass from the point you graduated for reunions to start taking place, but I’m not looking forward to the invites, nor am I planning on flying halfway around the country to catch up with people I didn’t like very much in the first place.

It was High School. They were awkward, I was awkward, we had different hobbies, and we didn’t hang out much. Who knows. If we’re still around and not glowing in the dark, I may attend my fiftieth just to see who all is still alive. At some point, there will be one individual left, they’ll show up, put on a party hat, pull the string on a confetti popper, be wheeled back to the old folks’ home, and that will be that. It likely won’t be me. I like food that tastes good too much, and I refuse to lower myself to eating kale even if it promises to extend my life by years. They’d likely be diaper-wearing years, so you know, you can’t take every promise people make at face value.

You can, however, take every promise God makes at face value because He’s neither trying to pull a fast one nor is He trying to sell you kale. He promised redemption, and the shedding of Christ’s blood facilitated it. He died that you might live, and that’s nothing to be trifled with or taken lightly.

Redemption also presupposes gratitude, which in its own right presupposes a reunion. Because of all that He has done, one day, we will stand before Him and thank Him in person and face to face. That is the goal. That is the prize. That is what the heart longs for. To be with Him, in His presence, and fall at His feet and thank Him for the gift of redemption.

Everything else pales in comparison to this singular desire. Everything else is dross when compared to eternity in His presence.

John 16:22, “Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.”

Jesus sat His disciples down, preparing them for what was to come. “A little while, and you will not see Me,” He said to them, “and again a little while, and you will see Me.” They didn’t understand what Jesus meant by this. They were scared and confused and still hoping that He might find a way for a bloodless redemption. Jesus knew there was no other way. He’d known since there was silence in heaven until He stepped up and said, “I will go.”

It was no easy thing to keep the promise of redemption. It was, objectively speaking, the most difficult promise to keep because it implied His having to suffer, His having to die, but gloriously His also rising from the dead.

If this kind of love does not animate you, if this kind of love does not propel you, if this kind of love doesn’t spurn you into action, nothing will. He went to prepare a place for you after facilitating your ability to enter in.

He’s been waiting for you, and for me, and for everyone throughout the millennia who have received the priceless gift of salvation. He has promised to return, and He will keep that promise just as readily as He kept the promise of redemption. Are we eagerly waiting for His return, or is the longing for Him no longer stirring in our chests?

Have we been wise and prudent, or have we been seduced and distracted by the voice of another who makes promises he cannot keep in the hopes that you will be caught unaware and unprepared?

These are questions we must contend with lest we grow indifferent and apathetic. Am I eagerly awaiting Christ’s return, or am I just twiddling my thumbs, passing the time, void of passion and hunger?

You know the difference. No one has to give you bullet points about the difference between eagerly awaiting and just trying to run out the clock. You know. It’s the difference between a wife running to the end of the driveway to jump in her husband’s arms after deployment and one who just waves when he walks through the door, halfheartedly, not bothering to break away from her soap opera.

Is He your everything? Is He your all in all? He deserves to be. There’s no doubt about that. He has redeemed you with His loving kindness, and He deserves to be not one of many but the only.

Do you find your joy, comfort, peace, and purpose in Him? Is He sufficient? Because He should be.

Throughout the years, I’ve found that if I lack intimacy with God, it’s a me problem and not a Him problem. God is never out of reach. He is not hard of hearing or distracted, He is waiting for me to approach Him, and when I press in, there is always more of Him to discover, a deeper love, a deeper joy, and a deeper understanding of all that He is.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.