The Glorious Reunion in Heaven

[Thompson, Darryl]

The Glorious Reunion in Heaven 

     Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting
doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. . . . He is the
King of glory. Ps. 24:7-10.  

     Christ came to earth as God in the guise of humanity. He ascended
to heaven as the King of saints. His ascension was worthy of His exalted
character. He went as one mighty in battle, a conqueror, leading
captivity captive. He was attended by the heavenly host, amid shouts and
acclamations of praise and celestial song. . . . All heaven united in
His reception.  

     The most precious fact to the disciples in the ascension of Jesus
was that He went from them into heaven in the tangible form of their
divine Teacher. . . . The last remembrance that the disciples were to
have of their Lord was as the sympathizing Friend, the glorified
Redeemer. . . . The brightness of the heavenly escort and the opening of
the glorious gates of God to welcome Him were not to be discerned by
mortal eyes.  

     Had the track of Christ to heaven been revealed to the disciples in
all its inexpressible glory, they could not have endured the sight. Had
they beheld the myriads of angels, and heard the bursts of triumph from
the battlements of heaven, as the everlasting doors were lifted up, the
contrast between that glory and their own lives in a word of trial,
would have been so great that they would hardly have been able to again
take up the burden of their earthly lives. . . .  

     Their senses were not to become so infatuated with the glories of
heaven that they would lose sight of the character of Christ on earth,
which they were to copy in themselves. They were to keep distinctly
before their minds the beauty and majesty of His life, the perfect
harmony of all His attributes, and the mysterious union of the divine
and human in His nature. It was better that the earthly acquaintance of
the disciples with their Saviour should end in the solemn, quiet, and
sublime manner in which it did. His visible ascent from the world was in
harmony with the meekness and quiet of His life."  

>From That I May Know Him - Page 72