My twentieth class reunion takes place this Fall. I know your response is the same as mine, “Travis can’t be old enough to have been out of high school for twenty years.” I would like to say it’s true, but the fact remains that I crossed that stage nearly twenty years ago. I wish I could say I graduated two years early but that would be a stretch.
Knowing this grand event looms on the horizon, I have been trying to get reconnected with some of my cronies from school. In older days people had to spend hours upon hours tracking down old classmates through former phone numbers and addresses, contacting parents and former employers. Technological advancements have eliminated many of those methods. A social networking program called Facebook helps people to connect and reconnect with others anywhere in the world. Just in the past two months, I have gotten updates on dozens of former classmates, all with the click of the mouse.
While I could not tell you exactly how the program works, I do know that when you connect with one person you can then see their list of friends and relationships. A quick scroll through their pictorial directory or “friends” section can reveal numerous familiar faces and names. From that list you can request a friendship connection with anybody. It is up to the individuals listed to grant the request.
When I think of how this, and other similar programs, help people from all across the state, nation, and even the world connect with one another, I am taken back by how simple it seems and how conveniently it functions. In a very short while I have added a good number of my former friends to the list and now I know a little bit more about their lives and they know a little bit about mine.
Nevertheless, this does not equate to really knowing what is going on in their lives. I simply get a snippet of their career, family, interests, and if permitted, where in the world they live. As good and as handy as it is, I don’t think that Facebook is what God intended for an ongoing relationship with one another. As I communicated with one fraternity brother of mine, “I would rather spend a few minutes talking on the phone and hearing his voice than just reading the text message.”
Then I think, what if Heaven is a lot like Facebook? When we die we have an instant listing of all the names and faces of Christians throughout history on screen before us and our only direct connection is through chatting by way of monitor and computer terminal. That doesn’t sound much like a Heaven in which I would want to spend all of eternity. I look forward to the face-to-face, direct communication with so many people that a computer screen would not suffice.
While I can enjoy the comforts of modern technology, there is still something to be said of God’s “old fashioned” design. I look forward to the class reunion later this year and seeing how everybody else has change instead of me. But more importantly, I anticipate a much greater reunion on the other side of eternity. A reunion where you don’t have to wear nametags or try to remember the connection with someone, it will all be revealed to us.
I look forward to seeing you at the reunion preparation place on Sunday.
Travis
