The Other Side

We have lived in our house for twenty-four years.
We built the house we lived in before this one.
We had lived in the previous house for ten years.
There was another house and an apartment before that.

I was thinking of the house we built the other day.
I was thinking about the woods that surrounded it.
The builder cleared just enough trees to build our home.
I absolutely loved the shade of the woods and the lush green that surrounded me.

We moved into that house right before our second daughter’s first birthday.
In the beginning, we did not have a lot of discretionary income.
Landscaping that needed to be done, we did ourselves.
We worked hard and took our time to get the house the way we wanted.

We had three more children in that house.
We had ideas to add on to the house as our family grew.
However, when it was all said and done, we decided to move.
We moved to another house in the same town.

I love where we live now, but my mind goes back to the house we built.
We had deer in our back woods all the time.
I was thrilled when I saw them, since I had never seen deer that close before.
I was especially thrilled when I saw a mother deer with her tiny, spotted fawns.

My husband wanted to make a path that led back to the deeper woods.
He wanted the path to have grass so that the children could easily go back there.
He wanted to make a larger open area he called, The Meadow.
I tried to envision what he was suggesting.

He went to work.
He cleared trees and moved small rocks.
He forged a path that led to the woods.
He planted grass.

He knew the children would love The Meadow.
They would feel like they were deep in the woods; but they were easily seen from the window.
I finally saw what his imagination saw well before me.
There was even a wall in the back woods at the end of our property.

We learned that another township was on the other side of that wall.
It was a clear boundary that we would teach the children not to cross.
They could play in The Meadow.
They could not go over the wall.

I would see them walk the path and head back to The Meadow.
I tried to imagine the things they were playing.
How often I wished I could join them.
Not as their mother tagging along, but as a child myself.

The Meadow brought them so much enjoyment.
I remember a conversation we had one night at dinner.
We were talking about how the deer rubbed the tree bark off with their antlers.
The area under the bark that was rubbed away was much lighter.

It must look like the trees on the other side of the wall, one of my sons said.
He realized as soon as he said it, that he gave away a secret.
He realized as soon as he said it that we knew he had gone over the wall.
He was right, there was another type of tree over there.

That tree could only be seen if he had gone over the wall.
He admitted that he had gone over to the other side.
Since the woods were thick and not cleared like The Meadow, he didn’t go very far.
The thrill of going over the wall was enough.

It was like another world over there.
The woods were thicker.
The trees were different.
There were no houses to be seen; not even our house could be seen from that vantage point.

We talked about it that night at the dinner table.
He did something we told him not to do.
He learned a few things from his adventure.
He learned that we had a reason for our boundaries.

I thought of Lucy Pevensie in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.
After moving the coats aside, Lucy felt cold and realized she was standing in snow.
Branches of trees pinched her.
Lucy entered another world when she opened the door of the wardrobe and climbed inside.

There is always something on the other side.
Narnia was on the other side of the wardrobe.
A wild looking place was on the other side of the wall.
One day we will cross over to another world.

I thought of a vignette, whose author is unknown.
It is the idea of crossing over.
It is the idea of being on the other side.
The author creatively explained dying.

I am standing upon the seashore.  A ship at my side spreads
her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch her
until at length she lands like a speck of white cloud just where
the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says: “There!  She’s gone.”
 
Gone where?  Gone from my sight – that is all.
She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was
when she left my side, and just as able to bear her load
of living freight to the place of destination. Her diminished
size is in me, not in her; and just at the moment when
someone at my side says, “There!  She’s gone,” there are
other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to
take up the glad shout, “There she comes!”
And that is Dying!

One day, we will cross over to the other side.
We have only two possible destinations: Heaven or Hell.
We have time, as long as it is still Today, to trust Jesus alone to bring us to Heaven.
He is the Way, after all.

There! She’s gone.
There she comes!
If we are in Christ, those who are in Heaven ahead of us, will be part of that joyful shout.
If we never trusted in Jesus for our salvation, the other side will be filled with grief and sorrow.

We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:8)

There is another world into which we will cross over.
It will happen.
There she comes!
Where?

That is the vital question.

2 responses to “The Other Side”

1. Thank you for this timely message. My stepfather was in a nursing home unable to have visitors for months due to covid regulations until placed on hospice, passed this week. Just a few days prior my mother asked him if he was trusting Christ for salvation. (though he had a profession of faith for decades). He said “absolutely!” and it was a comfort to us.

   Reply

   • Oh, Paula, that is such a comfort.
     It is the thing we most care about as believers int eh Lord Jesus.
     We want all those we love to know Him as well.
     Gina

     Reply