March 24, Now, when I go home....

A few weeks ago, a friend asked, with the eagerness you might express when asking, “Did he give her the ring?” “Is he gone?” A mutual friend had been failing, and now was down to hours.  My friend followed her question up with, “Can you imagine him dancing in Heaven?  It must be so wonderful!!”

My first thoughts were, “wait a minute.  There are people here who are going through great grief,” and fortunately I kept my mouth shut because the death of a loved one, secure in their relationship with God does not have to naturally mean great suffering for those left behind.  Certainly there is loss.  That loved one is gone and there is a hole, a vacancy that no one can really fill in the same way, and there is that attendant pain. 

BUT, my friend was right; the home going of a physically suffering and/or aged believer should be accompanied by rejoicing.  They are free from the limits and pains of this human body, and they are present with the Father.  Honestly, as hard as I try, I cannot imagine what that will be like.

The Apostle Paul declared that “to be absent from the body” is to be “present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). And later, he says that (for the believer) to die, is “to depart and be with Christ, which is far better’ (Philippians 1:23).  Jesus speaks of the immediate home of the saved dead, as “Paradise.” He said to the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).

Another dear friend and godly woman “went home” this winter, and in her last days and hours, her family sang to her, the wonderful old hymns many of us grew up with.  That’s what I want to hear in those last hours on this earth.  Her family not only sang these beloved hymns, but they rehearsed shared memories, Christmas stories, picnics, shared vacations and they laughed together.  Can you imagine how comforting that must have been for my friend, to know that her family was there, and that they knew the comfort she would derive from music and memories, even if she could not participate out loud.

So, when I go, you can just leaf through an old hymnal and sing a lot of first verses….you don’t have to sing all the verses, but do sing Amazing Grace, The Old Rugged Cross, How Great Thou Art, Be Thou My Vision, Blessed Assurance, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms, and My Faith Looks up to Thee, for starters.  You can just go to http://www.popularhymns.com/ for a great list.

Now, I am not being morbid, and I don’t have any secret terminal illness.  I was just thinking about these two wonderful people and also about what those who loved them were experiencing…and the power of music. 

I fear that since many churches laid aside the hymnal, we have been taught too many choruses, and choruses with so much energy that I don’t find them peace-generating.  So, drag out the hymns, forget about the bad theology that might be in some of them, (heaven forbid….this is not a teaching time, but a wonderfully comforting time,) and sing me home.