“My own plans are made. While I can, I
sail east in the Dawn Treader. When she fails me, I paddle east in my
coracle. When she sinks, I shall swim east with my four paws. And when I can
swim no longer, if I have not reached Aslan’s country, or shot over the edge of
the world in some vast cataract, I shall sink with my nose to the sunrise.” (Reepicheep
in The Chronicles of Narnia, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Page 524,
one volume edition).
“Whom have I in heaven but You? And
besides You, I desire nothing on earth” (Psalm 73:25).
This morning I have a doctor’s
appointment. I seldom saw doctors for much of my life, then in 2009 I experienced
a significant medical event and saw more doctors and medical technicians over
the course of a few weeks than I care to think about. Then my health settled
down until about 2020 when I crossed a kind of health threshold, since then
I’ve gone from taking no meds to having a pill box, and from hardly seeing
doctors to having a group of specialists. Thankfully, more than once I’ve seen
health problems reversed or mitigated – in one instance my specialist was surprised
at test results – what had been a significant problem that was possibly leading
toward surgery was reversed.
It amazes me that I’ve lived in this
body for 75 years without knowing much about it. I’ve talked to other folks my
age who think the same thing. If we’d known more about our bodies we hopefully
would not have eaten all the toxic and unhealthy food we and our parents were
conditioned to purchase. Now we are doing the same thing to our kids and
grandkids, the difference is that they are experiencing the toxic effects
quicker than my generation – for example, obesity and diabetes.
I tell my doctors that I don’t expect to
live without pain or limitations, I just want to understand how to manage them.
Knowing Jesus means that I am not alone in this, I sense His presence with me
in my health, after all, He made the package that is “me.” I am also deeply
thankful for my dear wife and her love and care as we support each other in
this season of life.
An element of living in the cusp of
eternity is realizing that your body is nearing the finish line, that your tent
is closer to being dissolved today than it was yesterday (2 Corinthians 5:1 – 5).
For some of us, our tents will be taken down in an instant; for others it is a
process…we just don’t know, we just don’t know. However, for those who know
Jesus Christ, we do know that we can trust our dear Lord and Savior Jesus to
care for us in whatever we may experience as eternity engulfs life as we have
known it.
When our desire is to be with Jesus and
the saints, the departure terminal is a place of expectation, no matter what
else it may be. This is not to say that there is no sorrow and pain and even
confusion; it is not even to say that there are no questions and doubts and
fears; but it is to say that Jesus is with us, that He calls us to Himself, and
that the rising of the Sun envelops us with His warmth and love and care
(Malachi 4:2). After all, our God is the God of the Resurrection. “I am the
resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and
everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die” (John 11:25 – 26).
Not long ago Vickie and I were
discussing what character from the Chronicles of Narnia we would choose to be
like. We were reading The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, working our way
through the chronicles. I said, “Reepicheep, not because of his overall
personality, but rather because of his desire to see Aslan’s Country.”
All of the ship’s company sailed from Cair
Paravel with the expectation of returning, except for Reepicheep; he left
determined to sail east to Aslan’s Country, never to return. “If I have not
reached Aslan’s country, or shot over the edge of the world in some vast
cataract, I shall sink with my nose to the sunrise.”
This is the way I want to live, and this
is the way I want to die…for as Paul writes, God made us for this purpose, He
placed His Spirit within us to draw us out of this world into His Kingdom, to
draw us from earth to heaven and beyond (2 Cor. 5:5). As Paul wrote to the
Philippians, “I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ” (Phil. 1:23).
This, my friends, is not escapism, anymore than it is escapism to desire to see
the lights of home after being on a long journey, this is the fulfillment of
all that we’ve ever desired and of all that we should have desired.
“This,” said Reepicheep, “is where I go
on alone.”
“Then he bade them goodbye, trying to be
sad for their sakes, but he was quivering with happiness…Then hastily he got
into his coracle and took his paddle, and the current caught it and away he went,
very black against the lilies. But no lilies grew on the wave; it was a smooth
green slope. The coracle went more and more quickly, and beautifully it rushed
up the wave’s side. For one split second they saw its shape and Reepicheep’s on
the very top. Then it vanished, and since that moment no one can truly claim to
have seen Reepicheep the Mouse. But my belief is that he came safe to Aslan’s
country and is alive there to this day” (pp. 539 - 540).
O dear friends, when others have said, “You
can be so heavenly minded that you are of no earthly good,” they have lied to
us. The only way to be of any earthly good is to first be heavenly minded –
then, and only then, can we be of lasting earthly good, for only then can we be
the Presence of Christ in this broken world, a world so blinded that most of us
in the departure terminal don’t know what plane we are boarding nor are we
aware of our destination. Only as we are heavenly minded can we have the
courage to help others, to point them to Christ, to ask why they are carrying
the baggage of the world with them, to ask why they have spent their lives on
purchasing tourist junk which they can’t take with them. Shall we call it “fool’s
gold”?
If someone in the departure terminal
asks us, “Where is your baggage? Aren’t you taking your treasure with you?” We
can reply, “My treasure is with my King Jesus, He is keeping it for me until I
arrive in His Presence.”
We don’t really need to possess anything…as
long as Jesus possess us.
So here I am, living on the cusp of
eternity…sensing that City pressing upon me, calling me…coming to engulf me
with waves that dwarf those of Nazare, Portugal…and on the other side of those waves?
Joy!
(And perhaps Reepicheep).
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