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 One Way Ticket
By Celina Worley
She thought it was odd. The back porch light was out. “Oh well, it must just be acting up.” She unlocked the door and moved to step out. In shocked fear she locked eyes with a man. He was masked and armed. There was a knife, and pushing, punching, biting, then choking.
She was so shocked, all she could do was scream at first. He shoved her down and started to suffocate her. As she gasped to suck in air and get loose from his grip, the idea of praying flashed through her mind.
“PRAY? What are you talking about?” an inner voice yelled. “God is letting this happen to you. He doesn’t care one bit. He’s just up there laughing. God doesn’t care about you. He doesn’t care about you.”
That night, just two days after Christmas, my sister faced a battle that was as intensely spiritual as it was physical. Both battles were in an effort to preserve her very life. Gently, yet with forced mental resolve, my sister chose that night, in her mind, to pray anyway. “I had just given too much of my life to God that I couldn’t not ask for His help.”
God came near. After struggling for 35 minutes she was able to escape, battered and beaten, but not broken. In the ensuing months I would hear her say something, something that to me became the hallmark of God’s enduring love and promise. Full of hope, she would say “The one thing I know is that despite all this pain, I have a ticket off this planet and it’s one-way.”
The last few lingering verses of I Thessalonians 4 flood my mind when I remember these words. Starting in verse 16 the author announces with clear, bold faith: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” He closes out chapter four by saying, “18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
Heaven is a reality. Soon we will hear the voice of the archangel. Soon we will be caught up to meet our Savior. Soon we will use that ticket, the one-way ticket, and spend the rest of forever with Christ. “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
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