Looking forward to the gathering in heaven where we will all be together

In my daily devotions right now part of the readings are from the book of Revelation. On Tuesday, November 16, after reading from Revelation 11, the closing prayer was an ancient Celtic prayer. The prayer read this way:

“The seed is Christ’s, The harvest is Christ’s, In the granary of God May we all be gathered. The sea is Christ’s, The fishes are Christ’s, In the nets of God May we all meet.”

The main request which I read in this poem and prayer is for all God’s Children and all believers in Jesus to be gathered together before the throne of our Lord. Actually, that is God’s promise. So, the wonderful truth is we will all be gathered, we will all meet, we will all be together in heaven!

I don’t know about your family, but in my family I remember my mother being happiest when ALL her children, and ALL her grandchildren were gathered together for a family event such as Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or a birthday or an anniversary celebration. And, the tradition continues today. In my own family I believe that my wife, Kathy, is happiest when all her family gathers together. Perhaps, when all the children and grandchildren attend worship with Kathy, this makes her the most happy.

One of the sources of grief and sadness in our world is when we miss out on the presence, and miss out on the love, of family and friends. For example, Kathy and I are visiting family in Florida at this time. We are working to gather with my brothers and sister and their families to celebrate the holiday. But, our mom and our dad are both in heaven. My mom died in January of 2011, and my dad passed away in August of 2018. So, we gather as a family, but vour parents are missing, and in all honesty we miss them. Actually, if we take this missing of family even further, none of Kathy’s and my children will be at our Florida gathering, they are in Alaska. We will have a great celebration and we will enjoy each other’s company, we will share our faith in Jesus, but there are others who will also be missing this Thanksgiving for various reasons. We’ll miss them.

In addition, our Christian family also includes other believers in Jesus. People of faith whom we have grown to know and to love through our congregations and through Christian gatherings are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are all part of the Christian family. For example, I recently posted on Facebook about a fishing trip with friend, Rev. Dr. Paul Mueller. Then I saw responses from 2 close friends in Memphis, and from another close friend in California. These were people who knew both Paul and me, but didn’t realize that we knew one another. Yet, Paul and I, along with our friends in Memphis and in California are all part of the Christian family. And, though we have enjoyed Christian faith and fellowship in the past, we are not physically together at the current time.

The Celtic prayer asks God that we may all be gathered, that we will all meet in heaven. Actually, chapter 7 in Revelation describes such a gathering. 9 After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

Then in verse 14 we are told about these people, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. In other word, those who believe in Jesus are washed and forgiven of their sins. Guess what, that includes all members of our families throughout all time who believe in Jesus as the Lamb of God, our Savior. And, according to Revelation 7, all Christian believers are joined together before the throne of God praising Him.

My family rejoices in the opportunity to gather together in faith and love this Thanksgiving. And, even though my children won’t be at our Florida gathering, they will all be together in Alaska. Some day, however, before the throne of God we will all gather in praise of our Lord and Savior. We will indeed all be together! Praise be to our Lord Jesus!