in a minute
In a letter which my late wife wrote to our daughters to be read after her death, she said,
"Let me first say that trite, often unhelpful saying, 'I’m sorry for your loss.' But honestly, I am. I wish I could hug you and let you hear and feel the Mother Blessing: 'Oh honey, it’s gonna be all right!' Because it is gonna be – in spite of the pain you feel right now ... I am not sorry for myself. My journey has ended; my story is complete – and we know Who wins! I wish I could describe to you the Glory and Joy I am experiencing, but now, as I write to you, I only know it by faith in the Lord Jesus, Who loves me and has never left my side."
As she concluded, Hallie added: "Girls, I love you and always will. And I’ll see you in a minute. Ask your father about that." What Hallie has now discovered, and I, on this side of Glory, firmly believe, is that she has not lost her beloved in Christ on her return to Him.
St. Paul tells us that God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6). He says, set your minds on things above, not on earthly things, for you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). Notice the tense of those verbs: in Christ we have died, Christ has raised us with Him, and has seated us with Him in heavenly realms. These have already been accomplished and yet, in this life, we have not yet entered fully into that Glorious State. But even now, our life is hidden with Christ in Glory.
When our beloved in Christ die, they leave this world and its confinement to time and enter eternity, God's Time, which is no time, The "I AM," The Alpha and the Omega together. It's as Jesus promised the thief on the cross: Today, you will be with Me in paradise (Luke 23:43). Or it's what we see in the Transfiguration, as the curtain between this world and Glory is drawn back, and see Jesus in His Glorified Body, with Moses and Elijah also in embodied Glory, talking in that time about the departure of Jesus in a future time, even though they lived in a prior time. Those in Glory, including our beloved in The Lord, are present to all time since they are no longer confined by it. And they are present to all and with all who are in Christ in all time.
And so, I once said to Hallie, "When you die, you'll see me in a minute." She sees me as I have always been, seated with Christ in the heavenly places, accomplished in The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). I have certainly lost her in this life, the only life I can live now as I await my consummation of all things in Christ. But she has met me as I will be, and forever am in the Great I AM, and she has all who ever have, are, or will be in Christ, redeemed by His Blood and Glorified by His Grace.
So, as you pray for those in Christ who are on their way to Glory, pray for them in the Light of their heavenly seating and ours in Him, and comfort them and their survivors in this present-day Reality.