Matthew 14:13-21

13 As soon as Jesus heard the news, he left in a boat to a remote area to be alone…..

After I heard the news of my grandmother’s passing today, I wanted desperately to retreat to a remote area to be alone; our master bedroom. It’s where I go every day to read God’s Word, pray, worship, journal, throw a fit before God, repent, rejoice, cry…….and so I thought it was fitting that I escaped back to my room this afternoon to sit in my lazy boy recliner (my grandparents owned lazy boy recliners my entire life) to praise God for taking Granny to her eternal home, while simultaneously grieving her departure from this one.

Grandma Scheel (later named “Granny” when she became a great-grandmother) was the quintessential grandmother for me. She baked chocolate chip cookies, made lemon meringue pies, showed me how to play Solitaire & Yahtzee, scratched my back and would laugh hysterically when we watched the “The Golden Girls” together. She provided squishy hugs (she was nice and round in the middle) when I needed to feel loved, but she was also willing to supply some much needed tough love when I acted like a brat when loosing at my favorite marble board game (it’s no coincidence that our daughter, who is named after her, shares not only her love of sweets, but an uncanny ability to show tough love, when needed!)

I thank God that He created my grandma, died for her & rose again to give her eternal life….and that she accepted His Son so that when she left her earthly body today, she was taken to be at home with the Lord. I thank God that He created me, died for me & rose again to give me eternal life…. and that I accepted His Son so that when I leave this earthly body, I will be taken to be at home with Lord to worship and praise Him alongside my grandmother and all the other family members of faith that I have been blessed to be born into.

If you haven’t accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, do it NOW. Not only will you receive an eternal house in heaven, but the Holy Spirit will give you life- to the full- here on earth!

2 Corinthians 5:1-10

5 For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. 2 We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. 3 For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies.[a]4 While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. 5 God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.

6 So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. 7 For we live by believing and not by seeing. 8 Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him. 10 For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.