Come Forth

A.D. 33

He opened his eyes to color. Every blade of grass sparkled like emeralds, every flower petal glowed with color- colors El’azer had never seen before. Peaceful and still, the soft breeze carried a hint of music. Tall oaks and maples swayed to the melody spilling over the rolling hills. El’azer spread his arms in the warm light shining from all directions. He inhaled in wonder. Where was he? Was this heaven? His last memory was of crushing pain and fever burning his limbs beyond endurance. Now this!

The beauty surrounding him brought tears to his eyes. He felt as if he had never lived before this moment. Wholeness flooded his heart, and he turned to a golden beam of light beckoning from the distance.

El’azer took a step, then another. He took a deep breath and ran. His legs hummed with strength and energy. He leaped, he twirled, he danced with a passion he’d never mustered in life.

The sweet smell of grapes filled his nose, laced with the fragrance of multitudes of flowers. Rich, heady aromas that swirled in the air like living rainbows. He inhaled color, scent, light, and song.

Then he heard it. “El’azer!” The Voice called; commanded. “Come forth!”

It was the Voice he loved. The Voice of his Friend. He needed to obey. He wanted to obey. Glancing around, he sensed the Voice behind him, from where he had entered this paradise. Shrouded with mist, the way back held little appeal compared to the song and scent before him.

El’azer wavered and cast a pleading glance over his shoulder, toward the misty path. He heard the words again. “Come forth!” He had to answer. It was his Lord. His Messiah. He took one step, then another, and found himself back in the stone tomb, wrapped in the burial cloths of yesterday. Faintly the light from outside shone through the linen twined about his head, and he stumbled in that direction.

The first thing he saw when the linen was removed was the beloved face of Yeshua. Traces of tears clung to His cheeks. El’azer gazed into the sad eyes and understood. Yes, Yeshua cried because He loved El’azer, but perhaps He also wept because of what He was asking of El’azer. The perfect beauty of the land he left behind lingered in his mind and he glanced over his shoulder as if the fragrance and music had somehow followed him back into this world of sorrow and death. El’azer turned to Yeshua and opened his arms, still speechless from the vision of paradise clinging to his soul. His sisters, Marta and Miryam, crowded in and hugged and cried into his robe. Yes, he was welcomed back into life, but it was an oddly dreamlike life, no longer feeling the vibrance and richness of before.

Present day:

Vaguely, I felt the heat of the July sun beat against my back. The dull scraping of shovels grated in the midmorning air. Faintly, as from the end of a long tunnel, I heard the voices lifted in song, the mournful words tugging tears to the surface. I stepped back, my foot tangling with the dried grasses of the cemetery.

It didn’t seem fair.

It didn’t seem right.

Why couldn’t Jesus return now, this day, and reunite us? My father wasn’t old. He wasn’t sick. Why was he taken now? Yet no matter how earnestly I scanned the sky, it remained cloudless and bright. The dirt piled higher and higher on the grave, the song came to an end, and still no miracle Voice calling us all to Him.

Would I want my father to return? Of course I did, and yet… would I ask him to give up the splendor of paradise, even if I could?

My tears changed, from tears of loss to tears of longing. Longing to follow. Longing for the bliss of Jesus’ presence. Longing to live so I could someday experience a glorious reunion of family and loved ones.