Until that Glorious Day

Last week I attended the burial service of an elderly friend of my mom's.

The burial service happened to take place in the same cemetary as the one my first dad was buried in on October 7th, exactly 30 years ago. For the full story see my previous post about my confusing family tree here.

I had never been to see where he was buried and so my mom took me to find his grave site.

It was rather strange. Due to my Christian faith and personal relationship with Jesus, and my knowledge of my dad's same faith - I know that he is in heaven with Jesus right now. I know that he is a grandfather to our two babies that I lost early on in pregnancy. I know that they, and many other family and friends, are waiting for the return of Christ to earth, and that all of our bodies are like a veiled image of what our glorious resurrected bodies will be. And yet, our earthly bodies - flawed as they are/will be until that day - are still such a personal and important part of who we are. It's how we relate to each other, how we interact with each other, how we know each other, how we show love to each other.
And this is the place where his earthly body was laid to rest, the place where the memory of his earthly life is etched in stone. And so, it is special. Important, yet eternally insignificant at the same time. For there will come a day when we will meet face to face in our glorious resurrection bodies. Our bodies will be unmarred by sickness, death or pain, the lack of any memories on my part will be irrelevant, and our reunion will be joyful and complete. Perhaps he will even get to introduce me to my children. Who knows? The details we may not know. But this we do know - it will be glorious indeed!

What a Day That Will Be - words and music by Jim Hill

There is coming a day when no heartaches shall come
No more clouds in the sky, no more tears to dim the eye.
All is peace forevermore on that happy golden shore,
What a day, glorious day that will be.

Chorus
What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see,
And I look upon His face,
The One who saved me by His grace;
When He takes me by the hand
And leads me through the Promised Land,
What a day, glorious day that will be.

There'll be no sorrow there, no more burdens to bear,
No more sickness, no pain, no more parting over there;
And forever I will be with the One who died for me,
What a day, glorious day that will be.

Chorus
What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see,
And I look upon His face,
The One who saved me by His grace;
When He takes me by the hand
And leads me through the Promised Land,
What a day, glorious day that will be.
What a day, glorious day that will be!

And until that day comes, I will rejoice in my many blessings. Including the blessing of having two earthly fathers to love me, invest in me and teach me to love my heavenly Father.

Until Then
But until then my heart will go on singing,
Until then with joy I'll carry on,
Until the day my eyes behold the city,
Until the day God calls me home.