Think of Christ discussing His departure from this earth with His disciples at the last supper. Remarkably, He skips the crucifixion and speaks directly of His glorification. It is not until the Garden of Gethsemane that He grapples with the coming nightmare.

We are so advantaged by Him to be looking straightaway at our glorification apart from having to endure a horrifying, otherworldly preliminary. Not to say we're free from trial, but thank God we are free from THAT trial. Compared to Him, we have a free ride.

After speaking of His glorification, our Lord tells His disciples that He must go away in order to secure a place for them, that where He is there they may also be. He then tells them to love one another.

We, also, are leaving the earth. Like Joseph and Jesus, we cannot bring others along until we depart ourselves. But think about this: not only are we the firstfruit of our friends and family members, but the firstfruit of the rest of humanity as well.

As they say in airline parlance: We are "number one for departure."