2:47 pm.  Tuesday.  May 3, 2016.  For many it was just another routine day in a mundane week.

Kids were getting excited because school was almost done for the day.  Teachers were probably equally excited to send kids home so they could finally accomplish what they needed to get done before they too went home.

Many employees were probably thinking only 2 more hours.  Surely, I can make it just 2 more hours.

Some were probably thinking what snack they were going to eat for that 3pm hunger attack.  Would it be a candy bar or something healthier today?

But for a close group of friends and family, 2:47 pm on Tuesday, May 3, 2016 would be anything but routine or mundane.  It would be life-changing.  Full of sorrow, yet joyful.  It would be a distinct moment in time that is vivid with unlimited tears, yet a small smile.

2:47 pm.  Tuesday.  May 3, 2016.  Ray Johns saw Jesus.

This blog was started about a year ago.  Around the same time Ray was in the fight for his life.  It served as a sense of emotional release for me but with Ray’s passing I lost interest.  I lost interest in a lot of things.  It was like losing my dad all over again because Ray and Daddy were the absolute best of friends.

Have you held someone as they took their last breath?  I have.  Twice.  First my dad.  I was on his left side holding him tight while Ray was on his right.  And when Ray passed I was so thankful Kay and his family allowed Mom and I to be in the room with all of them.  That last breath for both men was a slow gentle push of air that resembled all the peace in the world.  Amongst all the sorrow, that last breath was calming.

Both men had fought a courageous battle with cancer.  They fought like hell and they didn’t lose the battle.  Maybe from an earthly perspective, but from an eternity perspective they are victorious.  Death has no sting on them for they are men of God.  There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Ray saw Jesus at 2:47 p.m., Tuesday, May 3, 2016.  And sometime soon after two best friends were reunited as well.

I’m not sure when my 2:47 will be but I do know whenever it comes, I too, will be victorious.  Whether it be me passing from this life or getting beamed up when Jesus returns, I will see Jesus and sometime soon after be reunited with two men that had the biggest impact on my life.  That is why the unlimited tears I cry as I write this are met with a small joyful smile.

Are you ready for your 2:47?  Will you be victorious over death?  As my kitchen plaque says, “Get Right with God.”  I think Ray and Daddy would want me to remind anyone reading this of 1 Corinthians 15: 51-57 (MSG)…

“But let me tell you something wonderful, a mystery I’ll probably never fully understand.  We’re not all going to die–but we are all going to be changed.  You hear a blast to end all blasts from a trumpet, and in the time that you look up and blink your eyes–it’s over.  On signal from that trumpet from heaven, the dead will be up and out of their graves, beyond the reach of death, never to die again.  At the same moment and in the same way, we’ll all be changed.  In the resurrection scheme of things, this has to happen:  everything perishable taken off the shelves and replaced by the imperishable, this mortal replaced by the immortal.  Then the saying will come true:  Death swallowed by triumphant Life!  Who got the last word, oh, Death?  Oh, Death, who’s afraid of you now?  It was sin that made death so frightening and law-code guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive power.  But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three–sin, guilt, death–are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ.  Thank God!”

Until next time, Refine and Restore,

Big Red