"See Ya At The House!"

I have been painting our house room by room for the last few weeks. As I have proceeded mindlessly at my task I have had various media to keep me company. Last night I turned on my old VCR to play some Southern Gospel music. Okay, I have been found out! I love the old hymns they sing with the southern flavor and songs that belong uniquely to that genre. I have my favorite singers as well as my favorite songs. As I looked through my collection, I found one entitled "Heaven". Many in the video described what they thought heaven would be like, mostly based on scripture, but was some based their opinion of what a "perfect" place would look like in their mind.

One said it would be a "complete" place that included the beauty of all the seasons at once. One who sat in a wheel chair, instead of dreaming of walking, dreamed of a place of "freedom" and perfect peace.

Several thought that it was a place where, maybe after a rest, God would put us to work. I suppose if you were a carpenter you would never hit your finger with a hammer or have to re-cut a board. If you were a painter of pictures every color would blend together perfectly or a painter of houses would not need to clean the brushes or the spatters you accidentally dropped on the floor. Cakes would always turn our moist, musicians would never hit a flat note, and gardens would have no weeds.

When my grandson Caleb, a college Sophomore was asked some time back, what he thought heaven would be like, he told of a childhood notion that in heaven there would be a Bob Evans restaurant on every corner. When asked why he would think such a thing, he didn't really know, but when I heard this I recalled that as a little boy he called the "favorite" restaurant of Larry and I "Bob Heavens". I laughed as my granddaughter Cati told him that at least he could imagine a Starbucks on every corner instead of the big red barn that was not at all a place where teenagers would hang out.

When saying goodbye to someone he might not see again, one man would always say "See ya at the house" referring to his heavenly home. I like that! Though many varied about the details of heaven most referred to it as going home. I think that while we are young, we give heaven little thought but as we age there is a seed of homesickness that begins to grow inside each of us. Heaven becomes sweeter and the thought of death loses it's sting. God is so good!

I plan to see all my grandchildren, from the oldest to the youngest, marry, have children of their own and find their place in this world as followers of Jesus. I plan to have pancakes at Bob Evans every chance I get and kiss baby heads as long as my children keep having new ones. I want to listen to Southern Gospel music until my VCR breaks down and raise my hands to "Amazing Grace" for the next thirty years but if perhaps God wants me sooner "See ya at the house"!