I'll Fly Away

Death is ugly.  The corpse looks like the one we loved but does not act like it! It is lifeless. We devise elaborate rituals to conceal the true nature of the corpse from ourselves. We dress it, put it in a decorated box, put rouge on the cheeks, light the room with rose-colored light to cast the right kind of glow but the truth wins out.  The corpse is devoid of the spirit that gave life. It has about as much appeal as an abandoned house, which it exactly what it is!

Paul calls death the ‘last enemy’ that Christ will conquer. In his first letter to the church of Corinth, he makes a lengthy appeal to those Christians to remember that here is not all, that what is so real to us at this time is actually but the prelude to the final reality.  The inescapable fact is that "everyone dies because we all belong to Adam,” but that’s not the whole truth. The rest of the story says, that  “everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life." (1 Corinthians 15:22, NLT)  Apparently that group of Christians was slow to grasp the promise and implications of the hope of eternal life.  In his second letter to them, Paul once again reminds them of the inevitability of death but he is not morbid!  Instead, he sees death as a doorway for Christians, a moment of release and realization of what God planned for us all along.  "Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come." (2 Corinthians 5:1-5, NIV)

Death does not make us disembodied spirits drifting in the cosmos. The Holy Spirit reveals to us that the moment of our death is a change of address. We stop being transients and finally have a home. Now we live in a tent, there we will have a dwelling, a house not made with human hands. 

How do we know that Heaven is real? Some would point to the plethora of books that claim to tell the stories of those who have come back to share their glimpses. Some of those are sensational, clearly the product of human imagination; others more thoughtful.  But, the real reason we hope for Heaven is that the Holy Spirit bridges that chasm between time and eternity! He is of the eternal, yet He lives in us. In moments that we are most aware of His presence, we are able to peer over the window sill of time into the very real place prepared for us.  The Spirit is the ‘deposit,’ God’s down payment given to us, that assures us of the reality of our hope.

So what’s the point of all this?  Is not life so full that to think of Heaven is just a waste of time, an attempt to avoid the stark truth?  I remember being reminded often that I must not be so Heavenly-minded that I am no earthly good.  That’s not a true statement!  The assurance of Heaven keeps us on course, it is our true North!   Yes, someday bye and bye, I’ll fly away.  Those I love will be left, sadly, with a corpse, but I’ll be home with my Father.

Here’s the word from the Word. "Who got the last word, oh, Death? Oh, Death, who’s afraid of you now? It was sin that made death so frightening and law-code guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive power. But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three—sin, guilt, death—are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ. Thank God! With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And don’t hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort." (1 Corinthians 15:55-58, The Message)

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I'll Fly Away

Some glad morning when this life is o'er

I'll fly away

To a home on God's celestial shore

I'll  fly away

I'll fly away O glory

I'll fly away in the morning)

When I die hallelujah by and by

I'll fly away

When the shadows of this life have grown

I'll fly away

Like a bird from prison bars has flown

I'll  fly away

Just a few more weary days and then

I'll fly away

To a land where joys shall never end

I'll fly away

Albert E. Brumley

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