The Pleasure of Reminiscing and the Comfort it Brings

The Pleasure of Reminiscing

and the Comfort it Brings

Have you ever noticed when you haven't seen someone for a long time how much the two of you or several of you talk and laugh about what happened to you a long time ago? Do you remember this or that? And the warm-hearted memories cheer the conversation. That's because when you love someone, you want to share the good things of life with them—and the good memories. And Minnie often quoted Elisabeth Elliot's book “All That Was Ever Ours. . . .” [Still is!] That's because you carry those things in your heart and in your memory and they have become a part of who you are. Whatever was yours, still is. The memories remind you of your love for one another and the faithfulness of God. They are an intrinsic part of who you are.

But have you also noticed how quickly our wonderful experiences slip from the present into the past? I'm presently on another very rewarding project. During the 1970's and 1980's Minnie and I took pictures mostly as slides and only had a few of them printed to put into our photo books. So I'm going through hundreds of slides—probably 2000 or more—and having many of them transferred to CD's or DVD's. The resulting resolution is excellent and the whole family can now have copies to see on their computer screens what had been only a sampling of small photos in the photo books. So I'm thankful to the Lord for technological improvements making it easy to share with others.

And yes! There's an important theological and practical lesson to this experience. Those wonderful pictures of happiness and joy with all those sweet grandchildren the Lord gave to Minnie and me can be enjoyed again in our memories while seeing them again on the screen. But—and this is profound! And should be pondered—those sweet little children are not sweet little children anymore! They've grown into adulthood and have their own families. And yes, we still love them and are close to them. And yes, they're still a joy to be with! But the little ones are not there any more. And yet we haven't lost them! And there's where the deep profound theology comes in! In a very similar way, I haven't lost my wife either—and you can make the application to your own life. She is with the Lord and all the wonderful growing together and building into each other's lives has taken fruit and made us both into the kind of persons we actually are. And through it all God was working out His purposes in our lives and gradually transforming us more and more into the image of Christ from one degree of glory to the next. (2 Cor. Chs. 3 & 4)

Now for Minnie, she has actually seen the Lord face-to-face and has become like Him! just as scripture promised. And we have the reassurance that we will see her again someday! What an enormous comfort it is to know where she is and with Whom and that we will see her again not many years from now. And all the good things God has poured into our lives in Christlike character is still there and always will be. Time doesn't erase, it just adds on more of God's blessings for us to enjoy in eternity future.

--Pastor Burnside

A Year of Happiness

Today--January 13, 2011--is the one year anniversary of Mimi's homegoing, her coronation, her entering eternal life.  Jesus came and took her with Him back to heaven just as He promised in John 14:3 "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also."  She often talked about seeing Him "face-to-face" and now she has!

        We're well aware of the sorrow we've felt this year because of her absence and that sorrow remains, but let's focus today on her and what kind of a year she has had.   We don't know what it's like to be spirit without a body but God and the angels are spirits and they manage very well, thank you.  It's a different realm.  Spirits can see and hear and communicate and love and sing praises to God.  They are invisible to the human eye, but not to each other.   This is a mystery which we will eventually understand ourselves when we, too, go to be with the Lord. 

        So what sort of a life has Minnie had this past year?  We can imagine many things, but much of it would probably simply be just that, imagination.  A better question is: what has God revealed in His word that gives us some glimpse of her life--and what eventually will be yours, too,  if you know Jesus as Savior?

        "I go to prepare a place for you," Jesus said.  So Jesus had already prepared a place for Minnie.  And what a wonderful place it must be--perfectly suited specifically for her because "the Lord knows them that are His"--and everything about her.  So the place is wonderful because God created it but it's even more special because it is individually created just for her.  "A place for you"--doesn't that sound welcome?

        That prepared place is mentioned in another passage:  1 Cor. 2:9
    "But, as it is written,    "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
        nor the heart of man imagined,
    what God has prepared for those who love him"—

        Because we know the character of God and the creativity of God and the grace of God and the promises of God and because we see the providential hand of God everyday in our own lives, we are well assured of how well the Good Shepherd of the sheep takes care of those who are His.  But we also have a lot of scriptures that tell us what we have to look forward to, just as Minnie is presently experiencing.   And one of them is Rev. 14:13

    And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Blessed indeed," says the Spirit, "that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!"  God Himself said it twice in the same verse, Minnie is "blessed," she is "blessed indeed."  And what does it mean to be "blessed"?  It means that you are "favored of God."  It means that you are happy, really happy and satisfied and content such as you never fully experienced in this life.  "fully"--that's the word.  We've had a "foretaste of glory divine," but now Minnie is experiencing it in its fulness.  Jesus prayed to the Father that His followers "may have the full measure of my joy within them."   Minnie has that now.

        And Jesus' prayer to the Father continued, "Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world."  John 17:24 ESV  What must it be like for Minnie to see Jesus in His glory?  We've just caught a glimpse of His glory and it's totally changed our lives.   And as we "behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,"  we are "being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory" by the Holy Spirit who lives within our bodies as His temple.  But Minnie has actually seen Him now and scripture tells us what the effect of that was on her:  "we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." 

1 John 3:2 "I will behold thy face [and] I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." Psalm 17:15

          Let's do what Minnie showed us how to do every day:  "let us rejoice and be glad in it."

                                                                                              Bill Burnside (for Minnie--and for you)

Today seems an appropriate day to share with you that romantic chapter in "Mimi’s Journey," "Courtship and Marriage"  This is a pdf attachment with a lot of pictures.  Write me a comment and ask for the chapter and I'll send it to you with pictures as a .pdf file.