I have been by many bedsides and with many families reading these words of comfort and faith from Psalm 139 — but now I am by my own Father’s bedside speaking to my own Mother and sister as we watch my Dad in the sleep of unconsciousness. Will these words bring comfort to us, to me as I have sought to bring to others?? Of course they will because they are not my words but God’s!
At this point my dad was “asleep” to us and the world of this life. He was in this state for the last two days. We were the Awake and watching; it was not easy. In that time, these words of Psalm 139 became very personal. These are the words of the Psalmist reminding everyone through his words that while we are in this Life there is nowhere we can go that God is not already there. And should I fall asleep in the sleep of death, when I awake I am STILL with You (Lord) — for the Believer, we awake in His Eternal Presence.

These words reminded us of two things:

1. First, Many of us wish that when we pass from this life, it would be in our sleep. My Dad did pass in his sleep; just not the sleep I might have been thinking.
   
2. Then, I was reminded that when we sleep, we lose track of time. Whenever I wake up I have to immediately look at the clock because I have no idea how much time has passed- especially if I had forgotten to set my alarm.

We were the ones aware of the difficult hours slowly passing by sitting by Dad’s bedside. He was asleep — time for him had basically ceased to exist. AND here is the glorious news, when he did “awake”, Time really did cease to exist because my Dad woke up yesterday in the Presence of the Lord!
​
Thank you for all your words and prayers for our comfort and strength!

​Twice during Jesus’ last days, He tells the Disciples to go prepare something but He lets them know they only have to give His title and they will find that the “Reservation” has already been made. So in actuality, they were not tasked with making the Preparation, they were only asked to carry out what He had already Prepared!

As they near Jerusalem, Jesus sends them to get the Colt on which He will ride in triumphant into Jerusalem. They were told when they had found this colt, just start untying it and if challenged, say, “The Lord has need of this.” Where is their Notified Letter of Authorization? Where is the “Photo ID”? I believe the Disciples show a greater faith and obedience than I might be comfortable with—they went, they were challenged, they gave the exact phrase….and they returned with the Colt!! (Luke 19:30-35).

Jesus wanted to celebrate the Passover with the Disciples. Jesus tells them to go into the City and find a man carrying a jar of water who they will tell that the Master needed his room to celebrate the Passover with his disciples--- there were a lot of men carrying jars around Jerusalem! (Mark 14:13-15) I would have asked for more details: Carrying a jar on which street?... What design or type of jar will it be? From which well will he be carrying this jar? But they don’t need these assurances. They go and make the preparations because they were only carrying out Jesus’ pre-preparations.

Jesus still sends His Disciples to carry out PRE-Preparations. He sends us to Make Disciples of all nations while having given us all authority in Heaven and Earth and having already convicted hearts through the Holy Spirit! We are not preparing hearts. We are not going in our own Authority. We are carrying out His Pre-Preparations. 

Go, show the same confidence and faith as the Disciples who untied a colt and found some guy carrying a pitcher of water!