Luke 16:19-31
When Chet Finch died up in Ashland, Oregon, it came as no surprise to his friends. After all, Chet was 88 years old, had been in poor health, and made no secret of the fact that he was ready to go. No, all his friends recognized Chet’s time had come.
So they went to the funeral – solemnly marked his passing – and then, of course, went about their business. Life does go on, you know, and especially with Christmas coming, people understandably moved on to other things.
Maybe that’s why it aroused their curiosity, two months later, when 34 of Chet’s friends opened their mailbox and pulled out a Christmas card with a return address of “Heaven.” Then curiosity turned to shock when they opened the envelope and saw a message…….in Chet’s handwriting!
After that, you can only imagine their reaction when they read this message:
“I asked the Big Guy if I could sneak back and send some cards. At first he said no; but at my insistence he finally said, ‘Oh well, what the heaven, go ahead but don’t tarry there.’ Wish I could tell you about things here but words cannot explain.
“Better get back as Big Guy said he stretched a point to let me in the first time, so I better not press my luck. I’ll probably be seeing you (some sooner than you think). Wishing you a very Merry Christmas.”
-Chet Finch
So, how do you think YOU would feel if you opened your mailbox and found a card like that? If YOU received a message from beyond the grave?
It took a while for Chet’s friends to find out how he got the message to them. It turns out Chet had been planning a practical joke for two decades. His barber, Patty Dean, was in on the scheme. He kept giving her extra money when the postal rates when up, and kept updating the mailing list, until one day last fall when he sat down in her barber chair, looked up at Patty, and said, “You must be getting tired of waiting to mail those cards. I think you’ll probably be able to mail them this year.” A week later, Chet died.
Source: “Jokester ‘sends’ holiday greetings from afterlife,” AP, December 26, 2007 El Dorado News-Times, page 6-A.
That story set me to thinking: what if someone really could send a message from beyond the grave? If they could communicate back to earth from their eternal destination, what would they say?
Then it occurred to me: that HAS happened. TURN to Luke 16. Think of the perspective of Jesus – when he lived on this earth he was the only person alive who knew firsthand what lies beyond the grave! He fully understood the glory of heaven – the awfulness of hell – realized the eternal consequences of our decisions on this earth.
Every day Jesus walked and talked with people who have immortal souls – who will live somewhere for all eternity – and Jesus urgently wanted to communicate his knowledge – to make sure WE are headed in the right destination. That’s why he told this parable. READ Luke 16:19-31
Remember – our knowledge of eternity is strictly second-hand; all we really know is our earth-bound existence. But there was ONE person who has “been there” – beyond the grave. And Jesus is desperately trying to communicate a simple message: DECISIONS DETERMINE DESTINY!
I learned a long time ago not to take life for granted. You see, I ought to have been dead by now – at least seven times over.
When I was a kid, growing up on the farm, I spent a lot of time outdoors. Who knows what is the number one cause of death outdoors? Lightning.
When we’re young we don’t think about dangers from above – which is a polite way of saying I didn’t have the sense to come in out of the rain – and because I lingered outdoors when storms rolled in, twice I had lightning strike right beside me. Oh, I can tell you how the air feels around you the instant before the lightning strikes – how the air around you gets thick and heavy, the atmosphere becomes supercharged – I can still remember what it smells just after lightning strikes – an acrid, electric smell – how your ears ring from the sudden clap of noise. That was twice I could have died – but didn’t.
Then there was the time I was riding my motorcycle down a hill, on a curve, and the front tire blew out. I ended up in the ditch – landed on my back, on an outcropping of rock – and while I did have to be taken to the emergency room and get stitched up, that was the third time I dodged a bullet.
I’m sure there are other near misses I probably didn’t even recognize at the time, and won’t learn about until I talk with my guardian angel in heaven. I can certainly remember plenty of episodes, especially when I was younger, that could have been disastrous – foolishness like skating on a not-quite-frozen pond, or jumping out of barn lofts, or riding motorcycles on solid ice.
And the fact of the matter is, YOU don’t know how many times you have come close to eternity. Every time you drive your car down the highway, you aren’t aware of who is driving that oncoming car you’re about to whiz past, just inches across the line: it may be a line worker who’s just come off the night shift and is dead tired – or a woman who is distracted by the lipstick she just dropped and not fully paying attention to the road – or a man who has just stormed out of the house after a white-hot argument and is still furious as he speeds along – or a car full of young people who have been out partying and have been drinking far too much.
We typically don’t think very much about just how fragile and uncertain is our existence, and that’s mostly a healthy thing: we need to focus on this world just to make it through the challenges of day-to-day life. But the fact is, all of us live on the edge of eternity every day. And every now and then – maybe it helps to have a reminder.
Dan Williams