The Farthest Shore

By Brad Henderson

When I was 23, fresh out of college, at the beginning of my seminary experience, and serving my first churches, I got the call. Mom was letting me know that, while in the hospital for other reasons, Granddaddy had had a heart attack. It would probably be best, she said, if I headed home.

It was a long two hours from Chambers County to Brookwood Hospital, and to be honest, I don’t remember much of the trip. No doubt, I played over and over in my mind what I would find when I reached Journey’s End. He had been sick before, he was in his early 90‘s after all, but he had always recovered. And this time, he surprised us all by doing an amazing thing: he actually died.

In the days that followed, there were many stories recounted, many memories revisited. There were also those hushed conversations people always seem to have when faced with the presence and reality of death. So it was that on the day after Granddaddy died, Dad asked me, “What is heaven like? ” I was a seminarian now, so I should have some answers, right? But I had none. There were books I could point him to, but nothing definitive that would answer the real question Dad was asking: “What is my father experiencing/doing right now? ” We could, and did, speculate, but as with so many things related to God, concrete and tangible answers were elusive.

Now, almost a quarter century since then, when asked the same question, I have exactly the same answer: I don’t know. Oh, scripture gives us some hints, but they are always scaled down so that our human minds can have some comprehension about something that is beyond our comprehension. And yet, we do have answers, and they are found in the faith that sees us through all of the Things of God. With faith, in our unknowing, we yet know.