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LIFE IS A DARK 'WAREHOUSE,' FULL OF TRAPS, PITFALLS, BUT ALSO WHAT GOD HAS IN STORE FOR US

God does not hide things from you. He hides things for you. When you die, you'll encounter a "warehouse" full of his surprises.

Gifts.

He has secrets for you.

Surprises.

Death is a surprise party, if we're sanctified, if we're prepared for it,  if we have the purity of love.

Right now, you are wandering, however, in a darkened warehouse.

Did you ever see life this way? Life on earth can be darkness. We are tentative. We stumble about. So many things cannot be known. It's like we are edging along the wall or crossing the floor of a huge place with a little penlight, navigating between shelves and boxes.

Sometimes -- depending on prayer -- the penlight is stronger than at other times; always, while on earth, it is greatly limited. Sometimes, the batteries run out. The candle melts.

You flash it here: you see something dangerous, something you could trip over. A pipe. A drain.

There, in another corner: someone to help. There behind boxes: your future spouse.

You flash it there: on a shelf is an opportunity, a charism, a gift. You point it upward: the rafters seem endless. The light fades as if across the universe.

Only with Jesus do we have Light. He turns the penlight into a larger flashlight or even a spotlight. He reignites the wick.

Otherwise, we grope; we feel along a wall; we trip over a crack; there may be a ladder we could climb -- but couldn't see. There are rodents. They run right past us unless we illuminate them, unless we shine the Light on them. There are books, but we can only read some excerpts of them. There are those boxes: some tiny, some enormous, some stacked so high our little penlight can't scan them.

It's an obstacle course.

When we die, it will be like someone suddenly flicks on a switch -- turns on very, very bright lights -- and suddenly we will see all that surrounded us, and all that is before us.

We will see how we could have crossed it more directly. We will see the dangers we could have met (save for Him, save for our angels). We will see doors that led to opportunity, and doors that led to a dank cellar -- to stairs we would have fallen down. We will see how different choices would have led to different paths. (Meditate on that!)

The warehouse will be vast. And in some of those boxes will be the things the Lord had intended for us, but that due to lack of prayer or faith or courage in moving forward, we had never seen and opened.

He has secrets for everyone.

Pray to the Holy Spirit to illuminate yours.

Pray to see as much as He allows you to see of the "warehouse" called life.

Light your Advent candle.

"There are undoubtedly a multitude of things in the unseen world that never occurred because Jesus is the best Shepherd," says one man who saw Heaven. "I know that His 'messing around with my plans' prevented me from accidents, wrong relationships, and hidden traps."

How are you crossing the storehouse? With confidence? With fright? Your light: how bright?

What's "in store" for you?

As Jesus said (Matthew 13:52), "Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of Heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old."

He said, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal."

Said Saint Paul (Colossians 1:3-5): "We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in Heaven."

Perhaps we should use the metaphor of a dark stadium instead of a warehouse -- for those who "die" and come back say upon entering the other side they were greeted by what seemed like an arena filled with people who were anxiously waiting for them -- who were yearning for them, who were overjoyed at seeing them, who greeted them with wide, ebullient smiles.

You may not recognize them at first but you will sense that you know them very well and they certainly know you.

They will cheer you for everything you have done to further your family's mission, to further the Plan of God.

Unfathomably, you will see that they were always there, unseen in the dark, but seeing and helping you.

These throngs will turn out to be relatives, thousands of them, ancestors back to the time of Adam.

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