The Last Word

We were on our way to church last weekend and grandchild Kate, age 4, was sitting in her car seat in the back seat.

Kate: Mimi, are you married?

Me: Yes honey, I am married to Pop.

Kate: But Pop is old.

Me: How do you know Pop is old?

Kate: Because he has little strings on his cheeks (wrinkles) …. like you!

Ah, the last word. I have to admit (vainly) that I was feeling pretty smug until the last two words. As for Kate, we may be old in her eyes and we may have “strings” all over ourselves but she loves us dearly and doesn’t seem to mind that we are ”different” . Strings to her are just a part of the picture. We have them. She doesn’t. And that is fine.

I find often that the last words are the most important, sometimes the most stinging and sometimes the very dearest and most challenging and certainly are more than just cute phrases said from the lips of a child. The last words in an argument can stay with us forever and cause immense pain whenever they are brought to mind. The last words of an adult child as they leave for service overseas will not soon be forgotten. The last words on a child’s lips before they step on the school bus can remain with us throughout the day. But probably the most important words are the ones spoken directly to us before loved ones leave this world and go into the next.

So, Christ’s last words take on new meaning when they are thought of in the context of the LAST WORDS:

“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.”

Within these words we see the heart of God. It is people. My neighbors, my friends, the grocery clerk, the car repair man, my family, the homeless man holding the sign that says “will work for food”, the children running down my side walk on their way home from school. It is those that I pass every day that are on His heart.

But He assures me and you that though He has left, He has not left us powerless. We have the power of the Holy Spirit within us. That is an incredible fact. And the reason He has given that power to me and to you has a lot to do with that homeless man, those children, my neighbor, and the grocery clerk. I am Christ’s witness to them. You are Christ’s witness to the people in your community. We have been chosen to share not just good news but the very best news since the third chapter of Genesis.

So if I take seriously Christ’s last words, then I can be assured that the very first words I will hear when I see Him face to face will be “well done good and faithful servant”!