Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

• Luke 23:43

‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

• Revelation 21:4

One morning recently, I looked out the back door.  I could hear a songbird chirping, but I saw no movement.  I went through a brief inventory.  For the past two days, I had not turned on the television.  For the past two days, the only time I left the house was to make a journey of a single step to find that I had not received any mail.  Note: That never happens, okay once in twenty years type of event.  One day in a three month span maybe, but two days in a row was unheard of.

If I were a coffee drinker, I would have been sipping coffee and trying to see a little wiggle in the leaves of the trees.  It was as if time had stopped.

I suddenly had a voice enter from my “imagination zone”.

“Maybe you have died.  The post office has gotten word that you are no longer with this world.  Obviously, you are dead!”

Then, my conscious brain continued the argument.  “Does that mean that I am a ghost?  What happens when the knew renters move in?  Am I compelled to give them a hard time?”

Then, my conscious brain thought a little more clearly.  “Wait, Jesus, you told the thief of the cross that He would be with you in paradise that day.  And you say in Revelation that there will be no more pain and right now, I have pain in places that I did not know were places.”

Two or three seconds later… “Satan!  Nice try, but get out!”  As my postal carrier said soon after we moved into this house nearly thirty years ago, ‘If you are not getting enough mail to suit you, you need to write to people more.’

Note: Twenty years later, when he was about to retire, he complained that we gave too much to charities.  Half the time, their monthly letters wanting a donation was the only thing we had in the mail.  We told him once you donate to a couple, they sell their mailing list to all the others.  We were not donating to a tenth of the ones who sent us stuff.

Good news!  That afternoon, I got a magazine from one of the charities to which I donate.  I really am still alive.  Not that I fell for that trick anyway.

One old comedian said that he looked in the obituaries every morning.  If he did not find his name, he knew it was going to be a great day.

One of my heroes, Red Skelton, said that when he woke up in the morning, he would sniff.  If he did not smell a lot of flowers, he would consider getting out of bed.

But really, if we take God at His word, He does not say a lot about the next life, but He says enough.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.