The A List

“Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall be any means hurt you.  Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.”  Luke 10:19-20

Jesus had sent out 70 of His followers to witness about Him in preparation for His own visits to various cities.  He gave them supernatural powers in order that attention would be drawn to them, and that they would be shown to be true representatives of Christ.  When they returned, they were very excited about all that they had accomplished, but their greatest excitement was in being able to cast out devils from those possessed of demons.  I will admit that it would be exciting to be able to have special powers that would enable one to do things out of the ordinary.  But that’s not what Jesus wanted them or us to focus on.  After all, it’s not about us.

I remember back in elementary and high school when the teacher called the roll to see who was present and who was not.  She would call out a name, and the student whose name she called would answer “Here”.  Sometimes, to be different, one would say “Present”.  In high school, there are always what we used to call the “smart-alecks”, the one or two in the class that were always trying to be funny.  And they were usually boys.  One day when we had a substitute teacher, she was calling the roll, and a couple of boys decided to exchange names.  Not that it made any difference to her, but they thought that would be funny and cause everyone in the class to pay attention to them, which is what some folks are after anyway–attention.

There are other times when our names are called, for instance, in a doctor’s waiting room, for a job interview, and other places where we must wait our turn,  In most of these instances, the folks calling our names do not really know us.  We are just a patient, or a customer, a client, or any number of other folks that need some type of service.  The one calling our name usually has a clipboard or an I Pad on which our name is written.  We then get up from our seat in the waiting area and proceed to follow the person to wherever it is that we are to receive whatever service for which we are paying.  This is just a part of life.  Hurry up and wait.  Many of these occasions we do not really look forward to, but most of them are necessary tasks of which we must do.

However, there is another place in which those of us who have placed our faith in Christ have our names written down.  Knowing that our names are there is a reason to rejoice.  Of course, most of us don’t mind the wait to hear our name called to enter the great beyond.  Most of us are not in a hurry to hear that our wait time is up, and life as we know it is over.  The majority of believers enjoy life on earth to one extent or another, but when things turn sour, as they always do, knowing that our names are recorded in God’s book of life gives believers peace of mind to know that we will to cross over with joy into our final destination.  There was a horror movie a few years ago called “Final Destination”, and then Hollywood came out with a sequel called “Final Destination II”.  I thought that was rather humorous, after all, final is final.  When it comes our time to go, the death angel will check off our names, come and call us, and usher us into the presence of the living God.  There will be no sequels, no do-overs, no looking back, but only a peace and a joy forever and ever.  And no more “hurry up and wait”.