At Loose Ends

As I mentioned in yesterday's "comment" I'm feeling all at loose ends since I heard the news about John. Is this what grieving is? This feeling of disharmony, of everything being "out of joint"?

I will get back to regular blogging in a day or two. John was an occasional reader of Mr. Standfast and always encouraged me in it. His funeral is in two days, at the church in which he and Janel were married three months ago.

Lately I've been reading and rereading Romans 8, in which Paul writes, "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us."

In heaven the all-encompassing glory of God is revealed to us and even "in" us. Remember that it is His glory revealed in us, not our own. But the point is, what we now catch only in fleeting glimpses, because of our blindness, our fallenness, the "glorified" saints in heaven experience and participate in continually. Heaven is a place of continual revelation of the endless glory of God. Continual joy-filled astonishment at His goodness.

Paul goes on to say, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified."

In the meantime, we wait eagerly. We groan. We are often out-of-sorts, impatient, crying out for the fulfillment of the ancient promises. I thank God that He has given me the right to call him Father, and to cry out to Him, Abba, and that He understands even my groaning. And I thank Him that my friend John knows a glory beyond my feeble comprehension, and that I will know it too someday.