What a thought it is that the Lord Jesus knows where to look for and where to gather up every one of His own from the dust of death! He makes the dust give up the body which was laid in it to make each one a body of glory fashioned like His own, and to set each heart in His own presence and glory.
The very highest point you can turn to is the Son of man in the glory of the Father. Turn from that to the other utter extreme point, this Son of man rising up and coming down from that height, down to the dust where Satan has been allowed to separate the component parts of the bodies of those that sleep in Him. Each one is to stand up as a witness of the truth that He is the Resurrection and the Life, each one starting up from the dust of death at the first word from Him, the Firstborn from the dead, the Firstborn of many brethren, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. That to my soul is so unutterably sweet, so divinely and perfectly gracious.
What if God had made His Son head over everything, if He had not formed the hearts of His people for that Lord Himself! If He had once thrown the gates of heaven open, all that is in there would not be the volumes to my soul which I find in this word, "Forever with the Lord.”
The thought that I have to meet the Lord Himself to be forever with Him touches the very quick of my heart. Does that Lord who has loved me with so patient a love, and kept me with so holy a care from the time He first gave me life, does He say, "You shall meet Me"? Yes, and more than that: He is coming down to meet me in the air! These eyes of mine shall see Him, these ears shall hear Him, the One who loved and gave Himself for me, putting forth this last expression of His love for those whom His Father gave Him before the foundation of the world. And this is no transient meeting, but caught up to dwell forever with Him.
What did the dying thief know about Paradise? He did know it was to be with Him on whom he had cast his soul for eternity. I don't care where I am if I am with Him. Everything is in that "with Him" and it is that which we get in the intermediate state: absent from the body and present with the Lord. If I left the body, it would be to be with Him who is the teeming fountain of all the blessing now flowing down to my soul. If in the New Jerusalem, it would be a poor place without Him. Without Him, what would be all the brightness of heavenly glory? For me there is only that one thing—I shall be forever with Him.