May 5, 2023 - Good Morning! It's Friday, May 5.
I grew up in an old neighborhood a few miles east of downtown Houston. It's called "Denver Harbor" - an improbable name, since the nearest harbor is 50 miles away in Galveston, and Denver is a lot further than that! But by the time I arrived, the neighborhood was known by a nickname - "Podunk". Old timers (that would be anyone older than me) still call it that to this day. I've since learned that that silly name has been applied to a lot of places - places that, how should I put it, lack a certain "level of sophistication". That certainly applies to the place I grew up. Maybe you grew up in a place like that, too.
Texas, of course, is full of towns with silly names - Arp, Loco, Bug Tussle, Kermit, Elmo, Cut N Shoot, Uncertain, Nameless, Ding Dong - just to name a few. Feel free to email any weird Texas town names that I left out! And, if life ever gets too hard for you to handle, you can always move to - Paradise, Utopia, Blessing, or Joy!
The Bible is full of interesting places with interesting names - Babylon (Gateway of God), Bethlehem (City of Bread), Jerusalem (Place of Peace), Bethel (House of God), Eden (Delight). And so I was thinking this morning of a place called Beulah. It's a name often associated with a place called Heaven. It's mentioned in only one verse of the Bible, Isaiah 62:4 - No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate. But you shall be called "My Delight is in Her" and your land Beulah, for the Lord will take delight in you and your land will be married.
And so "Beulah", in the Bible, isn't a word for heaven, it isn't really a place at all - it's a word that means "married", a word that describes relationship. Isaiah is reminding his people that, after the exile in Babylon, God will restore a close relationship with them, his children, his "Bride". Come to think of it, that's not a bad definition of heaven!
I'm kind of homesick for a country to which I've never been before
No sad goodbyes will there be spoken for time won't matter anymore
Beulah Land, I'm longing for you and some day on Thee I'll stand
There my home shall be eternal, Beulah Land - Sweet Beulah Land.
Meet you back here on Monday,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org
