A Reunion with Tears
The holiday season is right around the corner! Families and loved ones will gather together to eat, to laugh, and perhaps to exchange gifts. This is a blessed time for reuniting and celebrating. A time to see each other again after having been apart for months or even years.
These earthly reunions make me think of a heavenly reunion coming.
Have you ever pondered what it will be like when you first enter heaven? Not just the beauty of that wonderful place or the glory of God’s presence, but those first moments? Especially the first time you see your Savior face to face?
Something I recently read jumped off the pages of Genesis and struck me in a very special way. I believe it offers a glimpse of the reunion awaiting every child of God. And it should motivate us when we think about the millions of souls who are not yet “born again” (John 3:5-7).
A Father’s Broken Heart
You probably remember Joseph, one of the twelve sons of Jacob, whom God renamed Israel. Joseph was especially loved by his father, who gave him the famous coat of many colors (Genesis 37:3). His brothers became so jealous that they sold Joseph into slavery. Then they dipped his coat in goat’s blood and brought it to their father, allowing him to believe a wild animal had killed his beloved son. Heartless.
The Bible tells us that Jacob was devastated. He tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourned for many days. His family tried to comfort him, but he refused. In Genesis 37:35, he declared that he would go to his grave mourning for Joseph. Just imagine that kind of heartbreak! Joseph and Benjamin were the two sons of his beloved Rachel, who had also died.
Years later, Jacob cried out, “All these things are against me” (Genesis 42:36). He feared that he might also lose Benjamin, which would bring his “gray hair down with sorrow to the grave” (Genesis 42:38). Here was a man who had walked with God and witnessed His faithfulness, yet carried deep sorrow for many long years.
I’m certain that many of you can relate.
And He Wept a Good Long While
But God was not finished with Jacob’s (Israel’s) story! Unknown to his father, Joseph was alive. He had endured separation, an unjust accusation, and imprisonment. Yet God raised him to tremendous authority in Egypt. He became Pharaoh’s right-hand man.
After quite an emotional roller coaster ride between Joseph and his ornery brothers, the time finally came for father and son to be reunited. And we read, “So Joseph made ready his chariot and went up to Goshen to meet his father Israel; and he presented himself unto him, and he fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while.” (Genesis 46:29).
A good while! Think about that. After all those years of separation and anguish, Joseph embraced his father and just wept. There was no hurry. Nothing else was more important. Just the overwhelming joy of a father and child being together again. They were reunited!
I like to think they wept for a good long while.
Jacob then said, “Now let me die, since I have seen your face, because you are still alive” (Genesis 46:30). What a reunion! Yet I believe it points our hearts toward something infinitely greater. I’m sure you already know what I’m talking about.
The Reunion That Awaits Us
Since the Fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden, recorded in Genesis 3, suffering, separation, sickness, and death have marked the human experience. Romans 8:22 tells us, “the whole creation groans”. And we ourselves groan along with it. We lose people we love. Our bodies grow older. Some of you have walked with the Lord for decades, perhaps burying those you loved most dearly. You feel Jacob’s pain.
But I want to remind you of something wonderful. Your story is not over!
There is a reunion coming that will make every earthly reunion (and every earthly sorrow) pale in comparison. We will be reunited with those who have gone before us in Christ and, far more wonderfully, we will see the One Who made us and redeemed us. Jesus Christ, our Creator and Savior!
I love the beautiful gospel song I Bowed on My Knees and Cried Holy. One of my favorite things is hearing my wife sing it. She has a beautiful voice, and when she sings about entering that glorious city and longing above all else to see Jesus, it transports my heart to that coming day. I can see myself bowing before His throne, overcome by His holiness and love.
And there is something else I picture.
I picture myself falling upon the neck of my Savior and weeping. Not for a moment or two, but for a good long while. After the struggles, the battles with sin, the times I failed Him, and the grief of this life, to finally see the One who bore my sins upon the cross! To know that I am home!
Scripture does not tell us exactly how that first encounter will unfold. But it does give us this precious promise:
“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)
Think about that! The Creator of the heavens and the earth will Himself wipe away our tears.
Can you imagine anything more personal, more loving, or more wonderful?
God Made a Way
How can sinful people enter such a holy place? Certainly not because we have earned it!
“For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8–9)
As John Newton put it, “I am a great sinner, and Christ is a great Savior.” The One through whom all things were created (Colossians 1:16) entered His own creation, died upon the cross to redeem us, and rose again. Through faith in Him, we have the assurance of everlasting life.
This is the gospel. Good news that never gets old! Our hope rests upon Christ’s finished work, not wishful thinking. For those who belong to Him, death is not the end of the story.
What a future awaits us! I cannot wait. What about you?
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