When We Get To Where We Are Going.
By
Dr. Dwight D. Garrett

John 14:2
“In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”

My daddy would oftentimes use small stories in his sermons to help illustrate the point of the message.  Many of those stories were “hand-me-downs” from generation to generation, some were stories others had told him.  And some of those stories were from life experiences.  The story that follows is one from his “life experiences”.

Throughout daddy’s ministry, he would sometimes honor requests to go and preach in cities and towns located in a different state than he lived.  Early on in his service to God, the best, and most widely used, and economical modes of transportation, was by way of train.  Once on one of his many travels on a train to a far away destination, he found himself seated behind a woman seated along side a rather young boy who had apparently boarded the train several stops before daddy boarded.  At first daddy simply assumed they were, mother and child, and he just took it in stride.

This trip daddy was taking was going to be a long drawn out adventure so he settled himself in for the long ride ahead.  As the train rolled along through the hills and valley’s, and through the sparse countryside, daddy sat contently by, reviewing the text and sermon he had planned on delivering once he got to where he was going.  He did however, notice there was a peaceful silence in the passenger car he was in, including between the little boy and the woman directly in front of him.  He also noted that the little boy was doing nothing but staring out of the window at the view---almost as though he was mesmerized by what he was seeing.   But this was pleasing to daddy, as it afforded him time to meditate on the planned message without distraction.

All of a sudden, the silence was broken when the woman turned to the little boy and said;

“Are you growing tired of this long train ride?  You look awfully bored”. 

The little boy turned his eyes toward the woman, sighed a sigh of relief, and replied;

“Yes, I am a little tired, and I am a bit bored at not seeing anything that interests me through the window.  But I don’t mind it much, because you see, my father, who I haven’t seen in a very long time, and who loves me, is going to meet me, when I get to where I am going, and that makes it all worthwhile”.

Daddy said that in an instant he crumpled up his planned message, and began composing an entirely different one from what he had originally had penned.

See, sometimes we grow tired and weary, and even somewhat bored as we journey through this life, and through this unattractive world in which we live.  And sometimes it were as though this journey will never end.  But those of us who have come to know Jesus, and who know how much He loves us, and  know everything He has done for us, can rejoice in the fact that when our journey is over---we too have the promise that our Father will be there to meet us---“When We Get To Where We Are Going”…and that my friends, makes the journey, all worthwhile!

In, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Paul wrote;  “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;  While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Knowing that we will be with Christ forever one day, far outweighs our burdens and strife today!  Keep your eyes on eternity, and your heart focused on what joy and eternal happiness lies ahead when this journey is over, and our Father meets us:

“When We Get To Where We Are Going”.

God Bless!