Then he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb’”. . . . Revelation 19:9 (NAS)
My Aunt Elizabeth (Betty) Blackstone died last spring at the age of 103. She was exceptionally witty, and I had scrambled to jot her quips on scraps of paper during our times together. At her funeral, swallowing tears as I read her witticisms out loud in the cemetery chapel, Aunt Betty seemed vibrantly present in her thoughts and words.
“The Lord is always good to us, but sometimes we don’t notice.”
“Now this is Monday, isn’t it? Hooray, I got it right! I just never know.”
“My Bill’s gone on to heaven ahead of me—he always could beat me first”
“I could look at my children’s faces and see a beautiful view.”
“It’s a great life if you don’t weaken, if you don’t give up what you were meant to do.”
“If I’m going to stick around on earth this long, then I better take the consequences!”
“The Lord gives us songs. Here I am 101, and He keeps giving thee to me. I just want to share the fellowship.”
I concluded my reading with Aunt Betty’s vision of heaven: “One of the first things I will hear is music. Just think, all the family and friends I’ll get to see. Heavenly gates will open and we’ll go in—oh my, we’ll shout with joy! To meet the Lord is going to be enough—too much—more than anything I’ve ever done in my life.”
Jesus, oh for a faith that rejoices to meet You!
