Hand in Hand

Nate was big on shaking hands. As many men do, he’d shake hands hello and goodbye, and shake the hand of someone introduced to him for the first time, both men and women. He’d also shake the hands of our children’s friends as they arrived to our home, whether youngsters or teens. He especially liked shaking the hands of his own four sons.

If he saw them first thing in the morning, his greeting was always accompanied by a hand shake. Meeting them at a restaurant? A hand shake. Bumping into them at church? A hand shake. In his view, at no time was it ever inappropriate to shake a hand.

Touching another person with a warm gesture — a pat on the back, a hug, a tap on the arm, a hand shake – though brief is enough to reveal what one person thinks of another. It also makes it easier to move forward into whatever comes next, even if it’s a difficult conversation.

Jesus was a good model of positive touching, never missing a chance to touch someone in need, to heal, encourage, or just be kind. I don’t know if shaking hands was in vogue in Jesus’ day, but being a hands-on person probably meant then what it means today: “I’m interested in you.”

One of the most famous paintings of all time was done on the ceiling of Rome’s Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo’s multi-paneled masterpiece crescendos in the highly-charged image of God reaching toward man in a painting entitled “The Creation of Adam.” The hand-to-hand gesture between them was probably as close to a handshake as people got in the year 1512.

Scripture is another place where potent but helpful hand-touching can be found. For example, the disciple John was given a vision of heaven and told to write down what he saw so the rest of us would have some idea of what it will be like. Jesus had left earth for heaven decades before, so when John saw Jesus in the vision, he was overcome with emotion and went face-to-the-floor.

Jesus bent down and put his right hand on John, a hand-touch that communicated love and acceptance. He urged him not to be afraid but to get up and be ready to write down what he would see. That hand on John gave him the confidence to respond as Jesus asked.

The Lord is all for appropriate touching, and some say we can actually “be his hands” here on earth. Then he takes our human touch and injects his supernatural power into it, causing people to move forward through the tough stuff of life.

I wonder how Jesus will greet us when we arrive in heaven. Handshakes all around? Group hugs? Back pats? Whatever it is, I know we’ll welcome it, “hands-down.”

“When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: ‘Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.’ ” (Revelation 1:17)

Be prepared.

Sleep was hard to come by last night. The forest crickets outside seemed extra loud, and the wall clock was doing a click-click instead of a tick-tick. I tried not to keep checking the glowing-green digital hours as they passed, but if the mind can’t be quieted, the body won’t rest.

When I asked myself, “What are you worried about?” my brain flooded with answers. Of greatest concern was an upcoming trip. Running through a mental check list in the dark, I couldn’t remember if I had or hadn’t tended to certain duties. Had I even written them down? And if so, where were they? Maybe on misplaced Post-it notes?

No one can sleep with a pounding heart, so the only thing to do was get up and make the list. Surely I’d drift off quickly after that, once everything was out of my head and inked on a hard copy.

Traveling produces anxiety for two reasons: (1) worry about forgetting something important (like my passport… again); (2) not having a travel companion to share preparations and second-guess me (formerly Nate).

Some people refuse to go anywhere because of this kind of pre-travel stress. I totally get that. But whether we like to travel or not, there’s one trip all of us will be required to make eventually, the one from this world to the next. When I think of the extensive planning for a journey from one earthly place to another (including mind-wrestling the details during the night), I wonder if I’ve taken the same care with my off-the-earth trip.

Maybe because that seems distant with ample time to prep, I’m not stressed right now. I’ve never lost a night’s sleep worrying about it. But really, why haven’t I?

Christ Jesus will be waiting for me at the other end of that supernatural travel day, so being ready is critical. Scripture says he’ll welcome me with open arms, but it also says he’ll have a few questions for me on topics like idle words, insincere motives, hidden sins. Will I have prepared well enough for all that?

The answer is yes.

The only preparation needed will have been my alignment with Jesus before I stand in front of him, followed by having kept short accounts concerning my sins and faults. Once forgiven, always forgiven, and that’s his rule, not mine.

It’s possible I might lose some more sleep over my upcoming trip, but because I believe the words of the Bible, I know I won’t lose one wink of it wondering if I’ve made adequate preparations for my journey to Jesus.

Jesus… “is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy.” (Jude 1:24)

Happy Birthday!

While driving home from Sunday brunch, Louisa, Birgitta, Nelson, and I had a conversation about whether or not time exists in heaven, in days, months, or years. Scripture includes several references to time, which then led us to talk of birthdays. Nate’s birth date was last Saturday, and we wondered aloud if annual celebrations have continued in his new community.

“I don’t think so,” I said. “That’s an earthly thing.” (Everybody knows people don’t get old in heaven.)

But Louisa said, “I think the opposite, that birthdays do continue. But maybe instead of celebrating the day you were born, they celebrate the day you began, which is the day you were conceived.”

While we were thinking about that, Birgitta came up with another scenario. “Maybe it’s the day you arrive in heaven. Maybe that’s the date they celebrate.”

Then Nelson added, “You mean a person’s death date.”

“Yes.”

Death date = birth date? Quite possible.

Later in the afternoon we were still pondering our birthday party question. Nephew Andrew said, “Maybe they’re celebrating birthdays linked to the day someone becomes a Christian.” That made sense as we remembered Scripture’s reference to being born again.

Andrew’s wife Kim offered yet another idea. “A birthday party is all about one person, and that much focused attention seems a little selfish for heaven.”

But then Louisa said, “Maybe the only important birthday will be Jesus’. And what date would that be? Probably the day he rose from the dead, which is when spiritual birth dates became available to the rest of us.”

Who knew birthdays could get so complicated?

We didn’t come to any conclusions, but thinking about heaven is something most of us like to do. Sometimes I feel like I have one foot in this world and one in the next, which isn’t a bad way to live. I don’t want to be so heavenly minded I’m no earthly good, but it’s a nice idea to live each day with an awareness that the life around us isn’t all there is. Each of us has a “some day” when this familiar world will recede and eternity will engulf us.

So how do we prepare for that?

We remind ourselves, when trouble comes, that heaven’s trouble-free existence is real and will one day be ours. And when everything is going fine, we marvel that something even better is coming. Then, between the difficult periods and the good times, we speak gratitude to God for planning a spectacular future for us. And while we wait, we practice patience, knowing he’ll transition us when our new home is ready.

I’m not sure about all this birthday business, but I do know one thing: if life in heaven includes any birthday parties, it’s going to sound pretty amazing when legions of angels join in on the “Happy Birthday” song.

“In his great mercy he has given us new birth… into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you.” (1 Peter 1:3-4)