185 The Family Reunion

The maples and ash and sycamores along Mountview Avenue in our old neighborhood were glorious this morning--every imaginable color on the trees, except maybe blue, and even it is a component of green. It had been raining; the clouds cleared and the sun broke through causing each leaf to wear diamonds. I was listening to a Christian radio a.m. station I’d never heard before, and the song was about a family reunion in heaven.

It occurred to me that when we get to heaven we’ll be seeing the richness and diversity of God’s family, the bride of Christ, the blessed, the chosen, the saved by his blood, holy children of God. Beautiful and different like those trees.

Every Sunday at the coffee shop Frank, the Catholic, suggests I need to get to the one true church. Catholics will be surprised in heaven to see us Lutherans, Methodists, and Presbyterians. Confessional Lutherans will be speechless to see other Lutherans who’ve never opened the Book of Concord, and Anabaptists will be amazed to see others who have gathers on their prayer bonnets instead of pleats. King James Only fundamentalists who believe you couldn’t possibly find God’s Word in the RSV or Message will wonder why on earth they made such a fuss.

Yes, we’ll be in for a few surprises at the reunion, won’t we?