I Go and Prepare a Place
The chaplain scanned the sky anxiously. After waiting for hours, he could see his airmen returning to base from the day’s mission. He counted their numbers as he tried to pray each one safely back home. He gazed at the rain-swept runway and waited until the last plane was on the ground before facing the reality that all had not returned. With a sorrowful heart, he took the letter given him hours earlier from his pocket:
Dear Mother and Dad:
Strange thing about this letter; if I am alive a month from now, you will not receive it, for its coming to you will mean that after my twenty-fifth mission, God has decided I’ve been on earth long enough and He wants me to come up and take the examination for permanent service with Him…
Some things a man can never thank his parents enough for, they come to be taken for granted through the years: care when a child and countless favors as he grows up. I am recalling now all your prayers, your watchfulness all the sacrifices that were made for me, when sacrifice was a real thing and not just a word to be used in speeches…
I die with many things to live for. But the loss of the few remaining years unlived together is as nothing compared to the eternity to which we go, and it will be well worthwhile if I give my life to help cure a sickened world, and if you and I can help to spare other mothers and fathers and younger generations from the griefs of war…
Pray for me; be proud of me, for I am proud of you. As you have done through the years for me, so now I do for you, and await your coming to me.499
This young airman’s letter is a sad but powerful witness to a strong faith. This is the faith available to all Christians, who rest in the certain knowledge of where they are ultimately going and in the fact that loved ones will eventually be with them in that blessed place. From God’s perspective, those who go sooner are even more fortunate than those temporarily left behind.
In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
—John 14:23