Geezer Memories and Glory Words

Geezer memories and glory words

By Ed VanDeMark

I knew five of my great grandparents and three of my grandparents. My great grandparents were born at some point before the Civil War. My grandparents were born prior to the Spanish American War. 

I knew five of my great grandparents and three of my grandparents. My great grandparents were born at some point before the Civil War. My grandparents were born prior to the Spanish American War.  

My parents were born in the years immediately preceding World War I and I was born five months before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

My oldest son was born during the Vietname War and our other two kids came around just as that war was concluding. Five of my nine grandchildren were born in the years and months leading up to the events of 9/11. 

This span of six generations saw the freeing of slaves, the coming of the light bulb, the invention of the automobile and the Wright brothers first flight. Penicillin, women's right to vote, the part line telephone, Lindberg's nonstop flight across the Atlantic, the atomic bomb and the Salk vaccine also came to us in this span of years.

The radio, the television, the computer and the introduction of aerosol cans were unknown at the beginning of this period in our history. Space travel and satellites, the landing of men on the moon, the civil rights movement, the assassination of three presidents, the great depression, the birth of Rock and Roll, the internet, the resignation of a president, the abortion of millions of babies and the election of a man of color to that same presidency all new in these same years. The rudiments of who we are as Americans came with these momentous events and many others.

The Christian Bible speaks of the increase of knowledge such as it has never been and says it's one sign of the end of the age. Just as there are many more signs of our increase in knowledge there are also many other signs that signal the Rapture of the Saints and the Tribulation of those left behind.

Two thousand and more years ago this same Christian Bible described the indescribable.

 The imagination of men could not have recorded our reality aside from the revealing inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Yet I heard with my ears three generations of relatives explain life as it was when they were young and I've seen with my eyes changes that no one dreamed of on the day I was born. There is indeed an unbelievable increase in knowledge and it was foretold before it was imagined by men.

I don't know when the Rapture will occur or when the Tribulation will commence but I'm looking up. I for one have a great desire to be caught away and no desire to endure those seven worse years of human history. I can't be assured that I'll live until that date and time when believers suddenly depart for eternal life with the God who foretold these events. Yet I choose to be prepared with my spiritual bags packed.

If this is all there was to this story there would be no reason for me to write it. I don't need to put it in print for my own sake. There are people I love and others I would love if I knew them who aren't ready for this cataclysmic event. This article is a love note to you and all whose baggage has yet to be dealt with. Please pack your bags with a love for Jesus, a trust in his promises and a prayer of confession to our Holy God with a request for the forgiveness of your sins. I want you to be caught up in the twinkling of the eye and join me on that train ride to glory land.

The 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians was the foundation of my salvation. These rapturous words were the ones that built my desire for a life in Christ Jesus. It was on the day I claimed them as my own that I packed my bags and began my preparation for my journey to life eternal.