Rain, rain please stay

It is really dark today. It’s 9 o’clock and looks like just before dusk. (Or is dusk the time that I’m thinking is just before dusk?) Mornings like this remind me so much of my childhood. When I was a kid my family worked at a theme park in Branson. We sang anywhere from 4-7 sets a day, 5 days a week. We would get to work at probably 8 am or something, I was a kid, so times weren’t very important. For some reason the mornings I remember the best are the ones when it was really dark and no one was there and we would just sit in our theater and hope no one would show up so that we could skip our show. It never failed though, 1 or 2 people would always come, and then we would sing just for them. Don’t be fooled, I loved singing and entertaining, it was pretty much the only thing I knew how to do, but sometimes when it’s cold or raining and dark you just don’t feel like putting a show on. I love rain during the days though, it’s just so thoughtful. Kind of like staring into a fire. Why do you always want to stare at fires? I don’t know! But they make you think.

I’ve been thinking lately about heaven. I think that everything in this life is put in front of us to make us want heaven more. Every time we taste something good we want it to last forever. There’s a verse in Ecclesiastes that says that God set eternity into the hearts of men, and I can feel it so often. I’m a very relational person and the most important things in life to me are people, and one thing I’ve discovered in life is: everyone leaves. My deepest sorrows thus far in this life have been having to lose people I love and truly love living next to, I want them with me forever. The one incredible thing about marriage to Adam is knowing that no matter what happens or where I go, Adam’s going to be there with me. It’s so incredible that someone has chosen to live their life with me. No one else ever does that. I’m so thankful for him. However, it really goes without saying that nothing in this life will last, and everything must be held loosely. Terrifies me to admit that in this context, but it inspires so much fear that I have to trust God. And I have to think about how beautiful it is that God’s invited us into His eternity. Not just invited us, but moved heaven and earth to make it possible. Oh my good grief, I am so excited to be in heaven with Him and all these beautiful people I’ve known. Such a gracious gift, and those human words could never embody or express what has truly happened.