If You Could be Anyone in the World...
If You Could be Anyone in the World...
Back in the mid-1970s, my living room came to life every Saturday night with the lights and sirens of my favorite TV show, “Emergency!” The action virtually jumped right off our sweet 21-inch, black & white, low-def screen. I carried an “Emergency!” lunch box to school every day, and dreamed of being a paramedic like John and Roy at Station 51.
Looking back, I had a whole bunch of scattered heroes in those days: Bo & Luke Duke, Bobby Orr, Evel Knievel, Luke Skywalker, Eddie Van Halen, and the guy who invented Bubble Yum… to name just a few.
Those bygone “heroes” came to mind several years ago when my son, David, was given an assignment in school to answer the question: “If you could be anyone else in the world, who would you choose to be, and why?
Well, unlike the list of my childhood heroes, David’s answer was anything but scattered or immature. In fact, it may be the most on-target answer ever given in the history of that well known grade-school query. He simply wrote, “I would like to be Grandpa Doc, because he’s in Heaven right now, and he spent his whole life serving God.”
Wow… just wow! Now to get the genealogy straight, “Grandpa Doc” is my dad, “Dr. Dave,” founder of Growing Christians Ministries. And while there are many facets to my son’s answer, perhaps the most interesting is that David willingly took life on this planet completely out of the equation. There were no thoughts of earthly fame and fortune. No desire for power or prestige. The typical childhood dreams of astronaut, firefighter, sports hero, or movie star never came into play. He didn’t even ask to stick around a few more days until the coming holiday weekend was over!
No, David’s vision was to be in Heaven now. He took the rare and Godly perspective that living a long and self-fulfilling life on earth is not our main purpose or ultimate goal as Christians. Instead, he echoed the apostle Paul’s words from 2 Corinthians 5:8, “We prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”
How many of us, if given a wish to be like anyone in the world, would quickly decide to be nothing more than a humble servant of God? And how many of us would choose to leave our earthly life immediately and be with the Lord today?
2 Corinthians 4:18 - So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
- Ron Reid
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