When the phone rang I had no idea my reply would change a good many things for the next month. But it was Advent and I know the caller was probably trying to make a few extra dollars and I was tired and cold with only the Christmas tree to keep me company.
“Okay” I said, “I’ll try the Movies channel for one month free”. A half hour later I was skimming what I had been offered…movies about space, action, women, life (but not the life I was used to). Oh no, this was not for me. So back to the phone for a cancellation (which was okay by them) but I did decide to try another package that perhaps might suit a Senior. Yes, it included the History channel. Don’t laugh. I have lived through a lot of history and that evening I did find a good program.
It included interviews with men who had been involved in the military during the 2nd World War. I had two brothers and a sister involved in the war effort and my brother Gordon saw active duty and was wounded in Italy. He is gone now, but his memory lingers on. When I saw those men on TV I thought…”These were his friends, these were the fellows he fought with.”
One of them shared that after two years of service overseas he finally was allowed leave to go home. As he walked towards his house he saw his sister. She looked up and screamed “………is HOME”. Such joy! And then the family poured out of the house. All familiar faces, all filled with the delight of his return home.
Yes, I wept along with the man sharing the story. How could you not. What can be more joyful that the return home. Finally the void if filled, you are where you belong. You are home!
I wonder if that is what it is like when we, like the man on the cross beside Jesus, finally are in Paradise with him. Will the heavens shout “Pat is Home!” Will the saints whom I have loved in the past, greet me with smiles of love? Will I see Jesus?
These are questions that Christians from the beginning of time have made. We search the Scripture, finding bits and pieces that give us tiny clues. We read with faith, we entreat with prayers and then finally we place it all in God’s hands and say “Your will be done.”
But like the children that we are, we still question just a little and God looks down in love and says “Of course, heaven is all ready for you.”
It is six year since I said goodbye to my husband Harry but I am sure that the day he died, the angels did shout to the heavens, “Look and rejoice for Harry is Home.”
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