Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west.

• Revelation 21:13

The gatekeepers:
Shallum, Akkub, Talmon, Ahiman and their fellow Levites, Shallum their chief being stationed at the King’s Gate on the east, up to the present time. These were the gatekeepers belonging to the camp of the Levites.

• 1 Chronicles 9:17-18

The lot for the East Gate fell to Shelemiah. Then lots were cast for his son Zechariah, a wise counselor, and the lot for the North Gate fell to him.

• 1 Chronicles 26:14

When he had finished measuring what was inside the temple area, he led me out by the east gate and measured the area all around:

• Ezekiel 42:15

“ ‘Girls aren’t very good at keeping maps in their brains,’ said Edmund.
” ‘That’s because we’ve got something in them’, replied Lucy.

• C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Six years ago, my wife wanted to take a trip to see her mother.  She wanted to pick up our son’s family because the youngest child had not seen his great grandmother.  So, we rented a minivan that could hold seven people.  We drove from Pennsylvania to Mississippi, where they lived at the time, and then drove to Texas.  It was Spring Break for my son and his oldest.  It was a wonderful visit for a few days.  We even took a trip to Galveston on the ferry so that the children could experience feeding the seagulls.

It was important for my mother-in-law to see our youngest.  Five years before, her son Piet had passed away of kidney failure.  Piet was my wife’s next younger brother.  Our grandson was named Peter in memory of him.  What we did not know was that Moeder Molly had been hanging on, just to see our little Pete.

When we were unpacking the bags, having returned to Mississippi, my wife got the call that she needed to return to Texas.  We arrived a couple of days before Moeder Molly passed away.  In Texas, you must wait seven days before the body can be cremated.  We went back to Mississippi.  We then brought our son and his family back to Texas for the memorial service.  Then a quick trip back to Mississippi to drop off the kids, and then back to Pennsylvania, over 5,000 miles in total on our rental minivan.

The minivan had a DvD player and it would play the audio when the car was in gear.  With an 800 plus miles trip to Pennsylvania, my wife needed to break the silence.  She and her mother had called each other every day for years.  She needed a distraction from her grief.  She had family around her and now it was just me.  I pulled out a DvD that I had never listened to before.  It was a free DvD when I had bought my wife another DvD from Gaither.  They had thrown in the Gaither Homecoming Gathering at the Ryman Theater.  The Ryman is where the Grand Ole Opry used to be, along with the radio broadcasts of Southern Gospel music.  It was amazing in that over half the music on the DvD, or so it seemed, was about going to Heaven.  My wife listened to the music and she found comfort in those songs, but she hates whiney songs.

There was one song that when it came on she asked me to rewind the DvD so that she could here it again.  For over 800 miles, we listened to that one song over and over again.  It was as if she was trying to send a signal to her mother.  “I will meet you in the morning by the Eastern Gate, over there.”  For a couple of months after we returned, I caught her singing the song at various times during the day.

Here is the recording of the song that gave my wife such comfort.  It features Lily Weatherford singing with the Gaither Homecoming Crowd, The Eastern Gate.

Why the Eastern Gate?  Maybe it was where Ezekiel kept going in and out when he saw the new Temple.

Now that my wife has passed away, I prayed for days.  She never said what music she wanted at her memorial service.  And suddenly I remembered, “I will meet you … in the morning.”  The men sang the first part.  The ladies joined in with the second part, or maybe it was the men and altos, and then the sopranos…  It did not take me long to find it, but I may have a hard time convincing the pastor.

But there is one problem when I get to Heaven myself.  My wife was famous for never being where she said she would be.  I took the boys, and we went to the bookstore in the mall.  She said that she would be at her favorite women’s clothing store.  One time, our oldest said that the only thing that we knew was that she would be somewhere other than the store she had mentioned.  To be honest, we would take longer in our part of the mall than she would in her favorite store, so she would move on.

But there was another problem.  She had no sense of direction.  None at all.  I joke about how she could get lost in her closet.  People laugh, but she DID!!!  When we moved to South Carolina, we had walk-in closets on either side of a short hallway from the master bedroom to the master bath.  I was using the facilities when she went into her closet.  There was a light switch, but she was only going to have the door closed for a second while she put away some non-seasonal clothing.  I emerged into the hallway to here her say, “Where am I?”  I replied, “In the closet.”  She then said, “But how do I get out?” Not wanting to open the door and bump her, I said, “I don’t know exactly, but my first guess is for you to turn around.”  She exclaimed, “Oh!” and the door opened.

One time on a campout, one of the boys snickered and said, “I bet Mommy can’t point north.”

She replied, “Sure I can.”  She stood up.  She pointed forward.  And then she spun around while still pointing.  For a second, she was pointing north.  No one could deny that.

But both of these things, not being where you say you will be and the poor, maybe non-existent, sense of direction will get fixed in our new bodies in Heaven.  So, maybe I will meet her just inside the Eastern Gate, over there.

But wait!  The Apostle John saw three gates on the east of the New Jerusalem.  WHICH ONE!?!?!?

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.