I close my eyes
Only for a moment and the moment's gone
All my dreams
Pass before my eyes with curiosity
Dust in the wind
All we are is dust in the wind (Livgren, Kerry A.)
Nothin' lasts forever but the earth and sky / It slips away. So says the song “Dust in the Wind”. Everything is dust in the wind.
And so it was for millenniums, until ?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /Bethlehem. Jesus was the exclamation mark of history. And nothing is the same.
This reflection is for those who are seeing a loved one home because of cancer, old age or other illness. Our sweetest songs are indeed those that tell of saddest thoughts.
Jesus came to take us out of this world; to save us for another world. “They do not belong to the world anymore than I belong to the world.” (John 17:14). And so we became more than the dust of Adam and Eve.
As pilgrims from another world we are all journeying towards our eternal home. The Gospel hymn “Going Home” says it sweetly:
Going home, going home
I'm just going home…
It's not far, just close by
Through an open door.
At the end of a long life we expect the sweet reward of home:
Momma's there expecting me
Papa's waiting, too
Lots of folk gathered there
All the friends I knew.
To that place where there are no tears, where there is no pain:
Nothing's lost, all's gain
No more fret nor pain…
Wide awake with a smile
Going on and on.
The thoughts for this reflection struck me when I looked at the farm house where my siblings and I grew up with Mom and Dad. The house is empty now. No longer do we gather there as family and know home. Like pilgrims seeking another home, we make the emotional adjustments.
My grandfather’s house no longer stands on the prairie. But it is more than dust in the wind. All who once lived there have gone home “through that open door”. And there is much to celebrate! In time all our siblings and we will join the generations that have gone before us.
Love is the constant! When we depart this realm we take love with us. To people of faith there is much to celebrate. Life begins on this earth, but it does not end here:
Momma's there expecting me
Papa's waiting, too
Lots of folk gathered there.
When our work is all done, our cares laid by, like it says in “Going Home”, we will have no more fears. “Our real life begun”, we will be “wide awake with a smile”. There is much to be thankful for.
