We’ll Meet Again

August 22, 2020 (Saturday)

Today would have been our daughter Debbie’s 61st birthday. Seeing the date on the calendar automatically reminds me that it is her birthday. She was 37 when we last saw her. Now two (Andy and Alex) of the three sons she left behind are married and have graduated from high school and college. Austin, the youngest, misses the memories his brothers have of their mother. Her husband, Rick, has followed her into Heaven. Wanda is there with them and all of her loved ones who have already arrived at their Heavenly home.

People have asked me about Heaven from time to time, and I’ve done my best to share with them what I believe the Bible teaches about that. As we get closer to the day when the Lord calls us home, we think about it more than we did in the past. We would like to know more, and some day we shall have complete knowledge of it all.

Someone asked, “Will we know one another in Heaven?” That question, I believe, was answered by the apostle, Paul, when he wrote a letter to Christians in Thessalonica about their loved ones who had died. Here’s what he wrote:

Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

Thinking along these lines reminds me of a song that expresses how I feel as I have thoughts of loved ones with the Lord and as I anticipate being called home myself. The song is a message from one child of God to another.

Look For Me
– by Rusty Goodman
sung by Tanya (Goodman) Sykes

When you finally make your entrance to that city
Of jasper walls, and bright gold avenues
As you behold all its beauty and its splendor
Remember there’s just one request I make of you
Look for me, for I will be there too
I realize, when you arrive, there’ll be so much to view,
After you’ve been there 10,000 years, a million, maybe two,
Look for me, for I will be there too

As you go down your list of firsts, there’s no question
You’ll want to see your loved ones waiting there for you,
And when you feel you’ve shared your story with the last one
That wants to hear you tell just how you made it through
Look for me, I’d like to hear it too
I realize when you arrive, there’ll be so much to view,
After you’ve been there 10,000 years, a million, maybe two,
Look for me, for I will be there too