Christianity is not a ticket out of this world. I am not denying John 15:19, where Jesus says “I have chosen you out of the world.” Rather, I am claiming that Christianity is a ticket into something that both includes and surpasses this world. It is a ticket into the love of Jesus Christ. Christianity is a ticket into the Holy Spirit, membership in the body of Christ and adoption as children of God, but it does not remove its practitioners from the face of the Earth. Christian feet will remain planted on this ground for as long as God sees fit. For some, there will be many years here, and for others, few. In any case, it will be as God wills it, in accordance with his designs. It cannot be otherwise.
They tried to arrest Jesus one time, because of the controversial things he was saying. “They tried to arrest him, but no one laid a hand upon him, because his hour had not yet come” (John 7:30). They could not overturn God’s design. It was God’s will for Jesus to remain a little longer here on Earth, so he escaped the clutches of his enemies for the time being.
We, too, can have confidence, that we will remain safely enveloped by God’s loving providence, which no enemy has the power to overthrow. Whenever our hour comes, perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, perhaps later still, whenever that hour comes, we can pray that the Mother of God and some saints and angels will be there interceding for us, leading us onward, receiving us into glory.