A/N- I just felt the need to share this. You don't have to like it, or agree with it, or respond to it (though I always love responses!). I just wanted it to be read.

To Preston: we all miss you.

IN THIS PLACE

By Emily Elizabeth Miletta

A man opened his eyes and saw the Lord.

He looked around and found, much to his surprise, that he stood before the throne of God. This was slightly confusing for a moment, because the last time the man had closed his eyes, he had definitely not been here.

Here: in front of the Creator of the universes.

Here: in the presence of the Alpha and Omega.

Here…here was an amazing place.

Snippets of memories flashed through his mind, pieces of flashbacks from before he opened his eyes. A dark, busy highway with a few stars twinkling overhead. The slamming of a car door, footsteps on pavement, and then the screeching of tires-

The man blinked and beheld his God.

And he dropped to his knees and bowed his head in reverence. “My Lord, my Savior, I love you.”

His life flew past, a blur of images and scenes. His birth, his childhood, his growth into adulthood, his marriage, the birth of his first child, the expectation of another. The faces of kids he served in the church, friends he’d made, the fun they’d had. A huge room full of high schoolers, hanging on the words of his earnest message.

There were bad times too, mistakes that he had made. Things that he regretted. But they didn’t really matter, because covering everything the man had done in his life was blood.

Holy blood, spilled from another Man, one with no sin. Cleansing blood, clothing him in a righteousness that was not his own.

So the man wept, prostrate before his Lord, Jehovah, his King. A King who died for his salvation.

And the Maker of the world embraced the man, His child.

“Well done, my good and faithful servant.”

The man laughed through his tears, a smile that so many he left behind would miss. “God, I love you,” he said simply.

In such a way, the man entered paradise in the arms of God.

Here, he thought. Here is an amazing place.

DEDICATED TO

PRESTON NEWBY

WHO WENT TO BE IN THE BEST PLACE EVER

ON SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

A MAN MEASURED NOT BY THE LENGTH OF HIS LIFE,

BUT THE BEAUTIFUL SINCERITY OF HIS

FAITH