My Dear Shepherds,

When we all get to heaven, I hope pastors will be able to watch the new lives of those we once shepherded. Wouldn’t it be something to see them there, dressed in their Christlike finery, looking so much better than they ever did in church even on their best days! Won’t it be wonderful to worship together!

The seventh beatitude in Revelation offers a view of their destiny and ours:

“Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.” (Rev. 22:14)

It has been our privilege to show raggedy, stained sinners the path we ourselves followed to the laundry of the Lord. Through friendships, counsel, and preaching we offered them the bleach of the Lamb’s blood. We waited while they changed and saw them come out whiter than snow, dressed in the unblemished righteousness of Christ. Every story was a retelling of the prodigal’s homecoming when the father exchanged pig-scented rags for his best robe.

We invested our lives teaching them to love and obey Jesus, to persevere to the end. We did our best to prepare them for a good death and we ushered some of them to the threshold of eternity and watched them step from our sight into paradise.

Now look at them! Blessed seems too weak a word, too worn out, for what we see. Here are people whose old names were in our church directories, people whom we had coffee with, whom we discipled and prayed for. Once they listened to us preach and now look at them! Look how confidently they stride through the King’s realm, all their sins, sorrows, and insecurities gone. Their white robes fit them so well. They are indeed worthy to walk with Jesus. And we helped with that!

Imagine those brothers and sisters we know so well approaching the tree of life unhindered. Once God forbade Adam and all who came after him to so much as touch that tree, let alone eat its fruit. We were banned and banished from its life. God posted mighty cherubim as sentries and “a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.” But look now! Nothing stands in their way or ours.

Wouldn’t you love to see them eat that fruit? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to meet them at the tree and remember old times when fruit seemed harder to come by and everlasting life beggared our imagination? Won’t it be wonderful to celebrate Jesus with them there!

Can you picture them walking through the gates of the Holy City? I remember the days when the Iron Curtain kept the citizens of the Soviet Union isolated from the West. A Christian leader from Ukraine was allowed to visit the U.S. probably because he’d once been a sports hero. He spoke for the chapel service at the ministry where I was working. The first thing he did when he was introduced was to go to his knees and kiss the ground. Then he stood and with tears in his eyes said, “You Americans! You have freedom!” And that was just this land!

So, what will it be like to see those we shepherded here finally walk through the wide-open gates of the New Jerusalem into the freedom and light of that city? Will they kiss that holy ground? Surely, we will all gape at the glory of God and gasp to hear the songs of saints and angels! Oh, I hope we will be able to see them there! How blessed indeed!

Be ye glad!

Lee Eclov recently retired after 40 years of local pastoral ministry and now focuses on ministry among pastors. He writes a weekly devotional for preachers on Preaching Today.