by Dennis Gladden, By Green Pastures, ©2026
(Jan. 6, 2026) — My soon-to-be nine-year-old grandson has two passions: back rubs and his mother.
I got to watch the two collide on the evening of New Year’s Day.
We were celebrating our oldest granddaughter’s birthday, and our grandson, Jack, was exhausted, having outlasted the Times Square ball dropping on New Year’s Eve by an hour.
He vacillated between shooting hoops, crashing on the couch, and playing. At the moment, he was on the couch.
“Want a back rub?” I asked.
No need for words. He sat up, turned his back to me, and pulled up his shirt. A back rub, to be done right, must be on the skin.
He slouched, content and comfortable, almost comatose.
Until.
His mother came into the living room, and Jack bolted.
It was time to open presents, and everyone was filtering in. My daughter took her seat by the stack of gifts, where she could hand them out to the birthday girl.
Jack nudged her to create space on the chair and pressed in next to her.
Two passions competed.
Love bested comfort.
Two passions also wrestle in us as Christians. We desire to live this life well, but we also want to be with Christ, which means leaving this life behind.
The Apostle Paul understood and put it into words.
For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to remain in the flesh is more needful for you.1
Paul had a fruitful ministry in Philippi, but he was in prison, anticipating his execution. As much as he wanted to remain for the sake of the Philippian believers, his death would be “gain.” He would be with Jesus.
Was he selfish?
No. When love and another passion conflict, love wins.
Paul spoke to another group of believers, the Corinthians, about this great exchange of living here for being with Jesus.
“While we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord,” he wrote, adding that we “groan, being burdened … that mortality may be swallowed up by life.”2
Nonetheless, we endure, “confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”
This tension directs how we live.
“Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.”3
Watching my grandson abandon a back rub to be with his mother, I get it.
Living this side of the grave has its joys and blessings.
But give me Jesus.
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