God's Paper Chain

 In our house, when there is some event we are looking forward to, we make a paper chain. You know, the strips of construction paper that you make links out of and join them together. For every day that passes, you tear off one of the links, counting down to an important event or date. This week in homeschool with my girls, we made a paper chain to count down the days we have left until Christmas.  After we had made the chain and hung it up above our school desks, I was cleaning up our supplies. A thought occurred to me as I looked at the chain in great anticipation of celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. "Does God have a paper chain?" I mean, not literally, I suppose. I guess what was going through my mind was "Is God counting down the days until we are all together again?"  Because truly He is the only One who knows when exactly that day will be.   "Does God look forward to being with me as much as I am looking forward to being with Him?"   We've been talking about Heaven in church the past couple of weeks, and it has me thinking a lot about it lately. What will it be like? What will we look like? Will we get to do our favorite things? Will we get to enjoy our favorite foods (without the calories)? I picture Jesus standing there waiting for me, seeing His face for the first time, thanking Him and praising Him for saving my life.  I think about all of my friends and loved ones that are there waiting for me.  I think about the baby that I lost, waiting for his Mommy to come hold him for the first time.  There is a lot of uncertainty of course, but one thing is for sure.  I'm gonna be there!  I have been saved by the precious blood of Jesus Christ and I will be there!

I know that God does not have an actual paper chain, like we do at our house. But I do know one thing: Only God knows when we will be together. Only God knows how many days we have on Earth. Recently, a friend of our family was killed in a car accident. 58 years old. Fortunately, she knew and loved God and walked with Him daily. She knew that morning when she got up that if anything happened to her, she would go to be with Jesus. I pray that we all come to live in that certainty. Every beat of our heart, every breath in our lungs is given to us by Jesus.  He alone knows when our last heartbeat and breath will be, and He alone knows the exact moment He will return to Earth to gather all who believe in Him as our Savior to enter into Heaven with Him. So if the last link on God's paper chain for our lives is torn off today, are you ready? 

 Lisa Powell