For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either.  1 Corinthians 15:13 (NLT)

Our resurrection is directly related to Christ's resurrection. For those in Christ, one cannot have one without the other.

I recently celebrated my thirty-ninth anniversary of my thirty-ninth birthday--do the math. I grew up in the coalfields of western Pennsylvania. My best friend in high school passed away over twenty years ago now. When returning to the area, I always visited his grave before leaving town. After he first passed, I saw graves of people three or four years older than us. As time passed, I started noticing the graves of people my age. With the further passage of time, I saw the graves of people several years younger than me. Then, one day, I walked past two graves, George and Tilter, the Tilter twins from my graduating class, and it hit me--this thing is winding down.

As I drove home that day, I experienced some nostalgia and a bit of sadness about leaving family and friends, but there was something else. I felt this peaceful yearning start to arise in my heart. At first, I was not sure what it was, but I soon realized it was a desire to go home, my heavenly home. Granted, it is a low-grade desire; I am not in any big hurry to get there. We all want to go to heaven, but no one wants to die. Yet, this yearning can be explained biblically by Ecclesiastes 3:11b NLT: God has planted eternity in the human heart. When it comes to our time to go and be with Christ, those who have, by faith, lived well will die well.

So, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, that yearning in your hearts is from God. That is why you will never be totally satisfied in this earthly abode. Some have said that we can be so heavenly-minded that we are no earthly good, but it can be just as true that we can be so earthly-minded that we have no heavenly vision.

My dear brethren, maintain until Christ's return but keep your eye on the prize and listen for that trumpet sound and put that date on your spiritual calendars when we will all meet him in the air.

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I worked for seventeen years as a missionary with Youth With A Mission.  My missionary work has taken me to Mexico, Canada, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Spain, and Ukraine.  I hold a Masters of Education in curriculum and instruction from Virginia Commonwealth University.  [email protected]