Absent from the body and...
present with the Lord 

     As Autumn approaches each year millions of Monarch Butterflies take to the sky and wing their way to Mexico. Unlike migratory birds, these butterflies are going to a place where they have never been before. In the Spring, they will start north again. Along the way, they will mate and die off for up to four or five generations until a special "super generation" of butterflies is born. These special butterflies will live up to eight months. This is long enough for them to complete their journey to their summer homes in the northern United States and fly back to Mexico again in the Fall.
     Like the Monarch Butterflies, we saints of God will also one day migrate to a place where we have never been before. A heavenly place "of many mansions" (Jn 14:2), so awesome that "we are unable to comprehend what wonderful things God has prepared for us " (Isa 64:4; 1Cor 2:9 paraphrased). Therefore when it's time to depart this world "let not your heart be troubled" (Jn 14:1). For Jesus said, "he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live" (Jn 11:25). "Because I live, ye shall also live" (Jn 14:19) again.