Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

On the north side their boundary began at the Jordan, passed the northern slope of Jericho and headed west into the hill country, coming out at the wilderness of Beth Aven.

• Joshua 18:12

Anyone who even comes near the tabernacle of the Lord will die. Are we all going to die?”

• Numbers 17:13

In the 27 years that my wife and I lived in Pennsylvania, my parents visited us twice, the first two years, one time for our son’s graduation.  They announced they were getting too old, so we would have to visit them.  Since they lived in Mississippi, I visited often.  I had training jobs from Alabama to Texas, and it was easy to make a stop over to visit for a day, nearly once every year for nearly twenty years.  I had just visited them three weeks before my brother passed away, which was then three weeks before my Dad passed away.  But it was always us “going” there.

My wife’s mother and youngest sister visited once.  Another sister was going to a town about an hour further down the road for a funeral and we arranged to meet at a fast food joint on their path.  But then, we visited Texas whenever we could.  We were always “going”.

Now, my son, at the time of writing this, is coming with his wife and three children.  And when this gets posted, he will be gone.

In going, you have to pack.  You have to plan.  And in my seventies, barely, the driving is not as easy as it used to be.  But that is all that I am used to.

This coming thing, is foreign.  There have been moments, but my wife and I always went.

Of course, the expression is that you are so busy or confused or stressed that you do not know if you are coming or going.

To answer the question in the second Scripture above, we are all going to die.  But it is our choice whether we go to Heaven or that other place.

As my wife’s caregiver for many years, I think of the words to a Carole King song.  “Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall, all you got to do is call, and I’ll be there yes I will.  You’ve got a friend.”

I think I like going better.  There is pain, but then when we get there, there will be no more pain, no more suffering, no more crying (like right now as I type this).

I will be there soon.  And all you got to do is call, and I’ll be there.

Jesus, I know there is no marriage in Heaven other than You with Your church, but let me be near her so we can be friends.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.