Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 it is not from works, so that no one can boast.
From the time we were kids we have hated waiting rooms. Those rooms are where you wait for the inevitable shot. Nothing brings more imaginative pain to a child than the moment between waiting and finally seeing the man in the white coat enter with his obligatory apologetic smile that had you waiting. While he was trying to catch up on his rounds you were left to worry about the pain of the shots. So you waited.Every year goes by and the association with waiting rooms goes on. You do everything to avoid that room. Exercise, good well balance habits, are just some of the things we do to avoid that dreadful room. When all else fails and you get tired of listening to your spouse reminding you to see your doctor, you go. The symptoms you thought was just an ordinary cold keeps hanging on. You finally take your spouses advice and head to that dreadful waiting room, all the long hanging on to hope that your doctor would tell you 'it's just a cold' and send you home.
So you enter that waiting room where you wait still remembering the pain of this room when you were a child. When the doctor in the white lab coat comes in he looks you over before deciding to order some blood work.
He leaves again and you wait some more before the nurse comes in with the cart you jokingly refer to as the blood cart.. The nurse tries to alleviate your fears not realizing that the pain you associated with this room first began when you were a mere child. The nurse presses your arm while looking for a good vein to get a good sample. You grimace while clenching your eyes shut trying to block out the pain of the needle prick. Before you know it the process was done. They got their sample.
You worry and you wait some more. You try to pass the time with old People's magazines sitting beside you. While your eyes are glossing over the words your mind dwells on the worry of the unknown. 'What if it isn't just an ordinary cold, you ask yourself? You try to stay positive by shrugging off any such notions that it isn't anything else but a cold. You wait. Waiting and worrying are often your constant companions in this room.
There will come a time when all of us will receive some dreaded news in this room. News we never planned to received. You mapped out your entire life in your mind: Graduate from high school, attend college to learn a skill, meet a girl and fall in love, take the dream career job, have some children, raise them to adulthood, retire with the woman you fell in love with and take trips with her until your body becomes too old and fragile and forces you to move into assistant living. News you never planned to receive often sabotages those plans.
But there is good news. When Jesus took his last breath on the cross he said 3 magical words that gave hope to all of us. 'It is finished' reminds us that no more do we have to sit before the judgement seat watching our lives being judged each word, deed or action at a time. It is finished are stamped on each of us because of the price Jesus Christ paid for each of us. We get to skip all of the unknowns, uncertainties because of what Jesus did for us on the cross.
The next time you find yourself relentlessly waiting in that room you have always associated with pain, remember that Jesus assures your future. No matter what diagnosis is given Jesus reminds you that when this life is over you will be ushered into a new heavenly home with a brand new heavenly body, not ravished with pain, sickness, and decay. When you take your final breath before closing your eyes to this world your next breath will be in heaven where you will gasp of the beauty that no words can describe. You will take in fresh air of heaven while running to your Savior and Lord Jesus Christ who gives you a hug and welcomes you home.
Life is often uncertain, but having Christ in your heart gives us assurance of the things to come.
