I have a friend who says the rapture makes her nervous and anxious, sometimes scared. She says she’s not afraid of not being a part of it, but the idea of just suddenly disappearing and flowing in the air somewhere. She’s terrified of heights. Do you have any encouraging words that I could share with her?
Tell your friend not to worry. At the time of the rapture she’ll be here on Earth and then in an instant, before her next breath, she’ll be standing before the Lord in Heaven with untold millions of others. The joy and excitement everyone will feel is beyond description, like nothing else we’ve ever experienced.
Believers from all over the world who have come to know the Lord during the last 2,000 years will be there. Since 1 Cor. 13:12 tells us we will know fully even as we are fully known, I believe we’ll all know each other. If so, it will be the biggest, happiest family reunion in the history of mankind by far.
Paul said getting from here to there will happen in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye (1 Cor. 15:52). By the time she realizes what’s going on it will be over. She’ll have a new immortal body and will not have experienced even a moment’s worth of fear or anxiety, nor will she ever do so again.
The notion of believers floating up into the air is a man made one based on the Bible’s description of the Lord’s ascension in Acts 1:9 which was not a model of the rapture and therefore is not the way it will happen. At the ascension, the disciples watched while the Lord was taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hid Him from their sight. We will be here in one instant and in the next we’ll be there. I can hardly wait.