Meet Me in the Air

I read through my last blog about my cousin Susan.  She didn’t make it.  Of course, the family has been grieving her loss. And we don’t know why our prayers were not answered with her healing. But this one thing I know, we don’t grieve as those with no hope because we know she is in a better place with her Lord and savior and other family members. But we still grieve.

As I re-read the scriptures quoted in that blog (For Susan) about the rapture or catching away of the Lord’s people, I was reminded of my grandfather. He was born in 1880 and died in 1977, aged 97.  He witnessed so many changes in the world during his lifetime. For one, simply look at the form of transportation – from horse-drawn carriages and wagons … to primitive automobiles … to more sophisticated and more horse-powered engines inside of those automobiles traveling 80 miles per hour … to propelled airplanes in the sky … to jetliners taking us across the country in just a few hours … to seeing our own astronaut walk on the moon. Think about it … in one lifetime … WOW!

But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. Daniel 12:4 (KJV)

Daniel couldn’t comprehend what was revealed to him. God said it was for the people at the end. You can see why my grandfather thought, for sure, the Lord’s return was imminent and would happen in his lifetime.  He told me on several occasions to be ready for the rapture: “It could happen any minute.”

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.  I Corinthians 15:52 (KJV)

Well, when I was 21 years old, my grandpa passed on to glory, but this message did not follow him to the grave. My mother and many of her siblings picked up the mantle and kept telling the next generations. They were concerned about family, friends, and others who weren’t ready for the Lord’s return, who hadn’t accepted Jesus as their savior.

Now my mother has passed away along with all but one of her siblings. She and many others are looking down cheering us on. Cheering us on for what, you might ask …

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,  Hebrews 12:1 (NIV)

… to run our race and tell others.  And so, that is what I am doing right now, telling you. Will you meet Him in the air at His secret appearing or will you be left behind and see Him when He comes in full glory?

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.  They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”  Acts 1:9-11 (NIV)

Forty-five years have passed since my grandfather went to heaven. My hope is for you to join me to meet Jesus in the air. I am excited to comfort you with good news. My mother and I invite you to the seven-year party in heaven instead of tribulation on earth.

To learn more, I recommend this informative, easy-reading book: Where Are the Missing People?