Perfect timing
I am not a journal-writer. My mom, on the other hand, wrote in a journal every day of her adult life. Or as close to every day as she could possibly get. We have journals that go back to the early days of their marriage. We can look back to see what was written when my sisters and I were born, when emotional events took place in our family, when world-events occurred.
It was my grandmother, Mom's mom, who encouraged her three girls to keep journals. We have her journals as well, though I understand that she didn't want them kept. In fact, she specifically asked that they be burned when she died. Mom did not obey that wish. Whether she ever read them, I don't know. I do know that as I was packing them up to send home with my Aunt Nancy after Mom's memorial service, I found the one from the year I was born. I opened to the correct page and sure enough, there I was mentioned for the first time. My brain was in too deep of a fog at that time to remember exactly what she said, but it was full of thanks and hope and joy.
How lovely to have her words about me, from day one.
I have not read any of Mom's journals. Not yet. I probably will someday, when I'm ready. Of course, that's if I can read her handwriting. She words were pretty wobbly for the last few years of her life.
I did, however, with Dad's permission, read what she wrote on the day she passed away:
12/25/22 Sun.
John 7:1-9
No time to write - later or tomorrow
Sadly for us, there was no later, nor was there a tomorrow. But that's ok. Because here's what she read that day, in her well-worn Bible:
"After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him. But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, Jesus’ brothers said to him, 'Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.' For even his own brothers did not believe in him.
Therefore Jesus told them, 'My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.' After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee." John 7:1-9
My time is not yet here...my time has not yet fully come...
Wow.
Jesus knows about timing. He's God, after all! God, who created time itself. God, who sees all of time at once. God, who knows what's coming and knows how things will work out and therefore never gets stressed out about current affairs the way we do because, quite frankly, "now" is just a drop in the bucket of time.
Jesus knew the time had not yet come for him to reveal himself to the world with multiple miracles and the like. He was biding his time. He waited patiently. He did not allow his human brothers to dictate his behavior. His time on earth had come...but his ministry on earth had not yet fully come.
Not yet. Not fully.
The last sentence Mom wrote in her two-page journal entry on December 24th, the day before she died, was this: "I will come Lord. I will listen."
She was so ready to be with Jesus!
And God, being God, knew. He knew Mom's time had come. Fully. Completely. She was ready to see him and he was ready for her, too.
I cannot begin to say how comforting that is.
And comforting, too, that the last Scripture passage she read was about God's perfect timing. She, a huge bookworm, had read her last book.
I don't know the exact Scripture passage they read in church later that morning, but given that it was Christmas day, I can give a pretty good guess: Jesus. Born in God's perfect timing.
"But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son..." Galatians 4:4
Perfect timing.
Or what about this?
"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly."
Romans 5:6
Perfect timing!
In birth.
In death.
Mom's time fully came.
Praise Jesus!
It was my grandmother, Mom's mom, who encouraged her three girls to keep journals. We have her journals as well, though I understand that she didn't want them kept. In fact, she specifically asked that they be burned when she died. Mom did not obey that wish. Whether she ever read them, I don't know. I do know that as I was packing them up to send home with my Aunt Nancy after Mom's memorial service, I found the one from the year I was born. I opened to the correct page and sure enough, there I was mentioned for the first time. My brain was in too deep of a fog at that time to remember exactly what she said, but it was full of thanks and hope and joy.
How lovely to have her words about me, from day one.
I have not read any of Mom's journals. Not yet. I probably will someday, when I'm ready. Of course, that's if I can read her handwriting. She words were pretty wobbly for the last few years of her life.
I did, however, with Dad's permission, read what she wrote on the day she passed away:
12/25/22 Sun.
John 7:1-9
No time to write - later or tomorrow
Sadly for us, there was no later, nor was there a tomorrow. But that's ok. Because here's what she read that day, in her well-worn Bible:
"After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him. But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, Jesus’ brothers said to him, 'Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.' For even his own brothers did not believe in him.
Therefore Jesus told them, 'My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.' After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee." John 7:1-9
My time is not yet here...my time has not yet fully come...
Wow.
Jesus knows about timing. He's God, after all! God, who created time itself. God, who sees all of time at once. God, who knows what's coming and knows how things will work out and therefore never gets stressed out about current affairs the way we do because, quite frankly, "now" is just a drop in the bucket of time.
Jesus knew the time had not yet come for him to reveal himself to the world with multiple miracles and the like. He was biding his time. He waited patiently. He did not allow his human brothers to dictate his behavior. His time on earth had come...but his ministry on earth had not yet fully come.
Not yet. Not fully.
The last sentence Mom wrote in her two-page journal entry on December 24th, the day before she died, was this: "I will come Lord. I will listen."
She was so ready to be with Jesus!
And God, being God, knew. He knew Mom's time had come. Fully. Completely. She was ready to see him and he was ready for her, too.
I cannot begin to say how comforting that is.
And comforting, too, that the last Scripture passage she read was about God's perfect timing. She, a huge bookworm, had read her last book.
I don't know the exact Scripture passage they read in church later that morning, but given that it was Christmas day, I can give a pretty good guess: Jesus. Born in God's perfect timing.
"But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son..." Galatians 4:4
Perfect timing.
Or what about this?
"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly."
Romans 5:6
Perfect timing!
In birth.
In death.
Mom's time fully came.
Praise Jesus!
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His time is ALWAYS best BUT ….as I live longer I still don’t see why Christmas Eve is a “ good time”. I know I will find out SOMEDAY. For now , I’ve learned to just TRUST
That's the name of the game: trust!