If I were to think of one word to describe Ruby Aslinger that word would be:

“Precious”

Ruby was precious to me. When I first met Ruby it was clear to me that she was having trouble hearing. She got close to me and spoke loudly. As I spoke to her it was clear she couldn’t hear me, so I leaned forward and she hugged me. After that time when we talked I would get very close to her, put my face against her, and speak slowly. When I prayed for her, that’s how I did it. I leaned in, rested my head on hers, and prayed. She could hear, and understand.

Ruby used to teach a Sunday School class back in the little cubbyhole we use as a store room now. It was Ruby, and Naomi Bailey, two elderly ladies. When Naomi moved away Ruby stopped teaching. During the Sunday School hour she would walk around the sanctuary and pick up trash from the pews and book racks. If she wasn’t doing that, she would sit in the Nursery with the babies. She told people the crying babies didn’t bother her because she couldn’t hear them. Ruby never sat in a Sunday School class because she just couldn’t hear. Her inability to hear eventually led to her not coming to Church anymore. She told me that she felt so self conscious and nervous.

But Ruby never stopped loving and serving the Lord. She knew God could hear her, and she could hear Him. I think that’s why God put this text on my heart today. It is Psalm 116. If you were to ask Ruby why she loved the Lord, I believe this is what she would have said:

Psalm 116:1-5 I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. 2 Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. 3 The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. 4 Then called I upon the name of the Lord; O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. 5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.

Ruby was like all of us. We have good days, and bad days. And we all desperately need the Lord. There was a time when the Word of Christ reached Ruby. She heard the Promise our Lord made. He said:

John 3:14-15 … as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

Jesus Christ came to this earth from the splendor of Heaven. In His coming He had but one goal – to save and bring whosoever would believe on Him into God’s Kingdom. The Bible tells us that we are all – each and every one of us – are sinners in desperate need of the Savior. The Scripture states over and over again that:

Romans 3:9 … all are under sin ..

Romans 3:10 … there is none righteous, no, not one

Romans 3:12 … all are gone out of the way … there is none that doeth good

That is what we would call the bad news.

But the good news is that Jesus Christ came to be lifted up on the Cross of Calvary. Because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) God sent His Son into this broken world because He loves us all.

We are told in Romans 3:25 that the Father sent His Son into this world to pay for our sins, and to take the punishment that we deserved. If we believe on Jesus and receive Him as Lord and Savior – honoring Him – this faith brings us into union with God.

You may not understand this, but Jesus makes it very simple. He said:

John 3:16-18 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Take The Cup Of Salvation

Ruby believed in and received the Lord Jesus Christ as her Savior. Though she had many afflictions and suffered as we all do in our imperfections and brokenness her life was the Lord’s. With the Psalmist she said:

Psalm 116:12-14 What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? 13 I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. 14 I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people.

We are all imperfect, and God is perfect. But God offers us a cup of salvation in Christ. We embrace what He did, admit our sinfulness, and surrender ourselves to Him. We then serve Him not to be saved but BECAUSE we are saved. He promises never to leave us nor to forsake us.

I said at the beginning that Ruby was precious to me. But you need to know that Ruby was precious to the Lord as well. He says:

Psalm 116:15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

God does not see all deaths as Precious. When the unbeliever dies – the person who heard of Christ but who has spent their entire life ignoring His work on the Cross of Calvary then God says to me:

Ezekiel 33:11 Say unto them, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have NO PLEASURE in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways …

God does not rejoice in the death of the wicked.

He does not rejoice in the deaths of those who have rejected Christ. But for those who have believed on Christ and received Him as Savior God says:

“Precious … that life is Precious.
That person is mine, a saint, my Child by faith.
My Son shed His blood for that person,
And now that precious soul enters into glory.”

When the Child of God by faith in Christ leaves this life their body sleeps, but their soul goes to be with the Lord. You do not cast what is precious out into the ground. You take that which is precious to yourself. You treasure it. When our sister in Christ’s body went to sleep her soul went to be with Him Who paid for it. The Apostle Paul, knowing that his death was imminent, said:

2 Corinthians 5:6-8 we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: 7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) 8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

When Jesus said “Lo, I am with you, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20). When our sister Ruby closed her eyes in the sleep of death her body rested. But her soul went to be with Him Who paid for her with His own blood. You ask:

“Why Did Ruby Have To Die?
Why Do Any Of Us Have To Die?”

I cannot answer that, but the Lord can. He has told us:

2 Corinthians 5:6-8 … while we are at home in THIS BODY, we are absent from the Lord:

{while on earth, we are not in Heaven}

… we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be ABSENT FROM THE BODY and to be PRESENT WITH THE LORD.

{when our souls leave this body, we go to Christ Jesus our Savior, if He is indeed our Savior}.

Death for the Christian is not a curse, but a blessing.

As we grow older and our brokenness becomes more pronounced, life gets harder. But our God never leaves us. On the day that Ruby passed from this life she was liberated from a broken body, and freed to be with her Lord in eternity.

A little girl was playing in the woods around her home when she happened upon a bird’s nest with four brightly colored eggs in it. She was amazed at this treasure, and afterward came back every day to see “her eggs”. One day she came to see her treasure, but found all of the eggs broken and empty, the shells scattered out on the ground. The little girl ran crying to her mother. “Mommy, I had some beautiful eggs in a nest, but now they are all broken. Nothing is left but broken shells.”. Her mamma told her as she took her baby in her arms, “Honey, those eggs are not destroyed. There were little birds in the eggs. Listen, hear them singing in the trees! They are alive still!”

We may not hear Ruby singing in the trees – but I pray God will give you spiritual eyes to see her singing in glory!

When our sister Ruby departed from this life the last thing she saw was your faces, and you her broken body. We are looking at death from this side.

From THIS SIDE, death looks like the end.

But from the other side, it is but the beginning.

Because Ruby received Christ as Lord and Savior she left this life to move into the arms of the Lord. Her mortality was swallowed up by eternal life (2 Corinthians 5:4). Death is not a cessation, but what the Apostle called “a departure”.

2 Timothy 4:6 For now I am ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.

From THIS SIDE, death looks like a separation.

But from the other side, it is a reunion!

Our God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

As Jesus said “Our God is NOT the God of the Dead, but the God of the LIVING!” (Mark 12:27)

Where Ruby is, you will one day be if Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior. We have that promise from God.

From THIS SIDE, death looks like a LOSS.

But from the other side it is a gain.

When the believer departs this life we weep and mourn their passing. But we do not grieve as unbelievers grieve. Why? Because we know that Ruby left us to step into glory.

Revelation 21:3-5 … God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. 5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.

When the believer leaves this life they enter a land of “no more, but much”. For Ruby there is no more”

death
sorrow
crying
pain
defeat

But there is God, Eternal God, with her forever.

This is where God would have you all be. Oh, that you would love God. Oh, that you would believe in Him, and receive Him as Lord and Savior. Oh, that you could say with Ruby:

Psalm 116:16-19 O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds. 17 I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord. 18 I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people. 19 In the courts of the Lord’s house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord.

The proof of eternal life is not that you live perfectly, but that you remember whose you are. You are bought with a price if you belong to Christ. You are bought with His Blood. You are precious, as Ruby is precious. And as one of His Children you shall see her again one glad day!

May God touch your hearts with His Word!