It is clear from God’s Word that death is not an accident but a divine appointment (Heb. 9:27).
This is not a popular subject but one that ought to be faced. The Bible beautifully describes it as
"falling asleep." We often use the expression, "passing away." For my part I prefer to describe
it as receiving the home call. It may be helpful to give some consideration to what the Scriptures
have to say about this matter of going home.

It is a tremendous privilege to be able to "listen in" to the prayer which the Lord Jesus prayed on
the eve of His crucifixion. Many books have been written and countless sermons preached on John
17, and rightly so, for this is the most remarkable prayer which has ever ascended up from earth
to heaven. May I point out one feature of the prayer which can easily be overlooked? It is that in
it Jesus announced to His Father that He was now coming back home. "I come to Thee . . . and
now come I to Thee," were His actual words (verses 11 and 13).

For Him that eternal home was familiar and satisfying. He shared its glory "before the world was"
(verse 5). He refers to the love enjoyed there "before the foundation of the world" (verse 24). He
had left that home when, at the Father’s behest, He came into the world to undertake the work of
redemption. Although the actual sacrifice was yet to come, Jesus spoke of it as accomplished
(verse 4). When a man’s work is done, there is nothing that he wishes more than to go back home.
The Lord also found deep joy in the prospect of doing just this, for the undertone of His prayer
surely is, "Father, now I am coming home."

He also made it clear that He was making the journey alone. Although His disciples and friends
would be very welcome to share in that heavenly home, they still had a work to do (in fact they
were only now about to begin their real work), so they would be left behind (verses 11 and 15).
The Lord had already told them, "Whither I go, ye cannot come" and then repeated to Peter,
"Thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards" (John 13:33, 36). It was not
that He wanted to be alone in the Father’s home. Far from it! His final request_His last Will and
Testament, as it were_was:"Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me
where I am" (verse 24). For them, however, it was not yet time to go home.

This could also be said about another disciple and friend, the apostle Paul. Paul confessed to the
Philippians that he could have wished to go home too, "Having a desire to depart, and to be with
Christ" (Phil. 1:23); but he went on to explain that as his work was not yet completed he realized
that his longings for home had to be restrained. In writing to the Corinthians he had expressed this
same yearning:"Willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord" (2
Cor. 5:8).

Does this sound morbid? Was it wrong for Paul to long for home? There was this special feature
in his case:he had been given the unique privilege of a glimpse into the heavenly home which he
calls paradise. He writes about this in 2 Cor. 12:1-4, seemingly being unsure as to whether he had
been still alive at that moment or whether he had in fact died and been raised back again to life.
"God knows," was his comment and he was content to leave it at that and to obey the injunction
that he should never disclose what he saw and heard on that occasion. May it not have been this

glimpse, however, which made him so eager to go home?

Paul was no mere mystic. He was a worker if ever there was one. He organized famine relief, he
gave much time and thought to marriage guidance, and he was a man full of concern for the aged
and needy. He certainly did not spend all his time singing about the home "above the bright blue
sky." Most of all, he was a tireless messenger of the gospel. He knew of God’s longing to fill His
home with redeemed sons and daughters and so he never tired of inviting people to come out of
the cold of this world’s dark night into the warmth and light of the Father’s love. "No more
strangers and foreigners," he wrote, "but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of
God" (Eph. 2:19). There is plenty of room for believers in the Father’s house of many mansions.
Paul had not himself heard those comforting words of Jesus, but he knew how true and how
relevant they are to fearful hearts.

"Sunday school sentiment," say the scoffers. "Pie in the sky when you die," sneer the materialists.
Let them mock and jeer. According to Christ, God says that the real fools are those who are trying
to find permanence and security in earthly possessions (Luke 12:20,21). I would rather be called
a fool by men than by God. The truth is that we Christians are here on earth to do a job for God
and have no wish to give that up prematurely. When, though, that job is finished, far from
struggling and pleading to go on existing here, we should look forward with pleasure to the joys
of going home to God.

Have you ever appreciated that Christ’s comforting words to the dying thief implied His own
complete confidence, even during the dread experience of the cross? His words revealed that He
anticipated being in paradise Himself first. "Verily," "in paradise," "today’-these were His words.
He was going home! The thrill to us is that He also assured the penitent thief that when he reached
the garden home of God he would be welcomed there by Someone he knew, even by the Lord
Himself.

There is so much that we do not know about the state of the blessed dead as they await_with
us_the second coming of Christ. The New Testament gives us every reason, however, to think
and talk in terms of arrival at God’s home, to be welcomed there by the One whom we already
know as the Son over God’s house. "I will receive you unto myself," were the consoling words
of Jesus to the disciples with troubled hearts. "With me in paradise," He assured the dying thief.
"We are confident," wrote Paul, "and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present
with the Lord."

We live in a world where death is regarded as the ultimate calamity; where every effort must be
made and no expense spared to keep alive a little longer, even if it is only for a few weeks. That
is quite understandable for those who will be eternally homeless, but for us it should be very
different. We want to live out our lives. We want to finish whatever job God has given us to do.
But when He sees that our task is accomplished, then we want Him to take us home to Himself.
If we keep our thoughts on the Father’s house of many mansions we shall be able to obey the
command of the Lord Jesus:"Let not your heart be troubled." Not a few people have been won
for Christ by seeing how Christians face death.

(From Toward the Mark, Vol. 6.)