~I'll See You Again, Daddy

U nlike the cold gloomy day in January, 1994 when I was there last, this day was sunny. The birds were singing and a comfortable breeze was blowing as I stood beside the headstone in a little rural Oklahoma cemetery I was glad no one else was there, because I wanted to reflect and pray at my daddy's gravesite. Emotions too deep for words arose, and so instead of words at first, there were only tears. My tears though were not for my dad, they were for myself because I miss him very much.  A simple man with little formal education, he worked very hard all his life to support his wife and six children. He loved corny jokes, working in his yard, and sitting on the porch swing with each one of us and his grandchildren when we would come to visit him.    I walked around the old graveyard which was covered with flowers because it was Memorial Day. Some graves were old with only a crude marker, some obviously more recent. There were even tombstones for people who are still alive, my mother is one of them. Many of the dead in that place were relatives of mine  It was an emotional and sentimental visit.    When I was ready to go, I stood again by my dad's burial place  I spoke aloud, though I knew he could not hear me.  "Daddy," I said, "I love you and miss you. We all do. But Daddy, I know that we will all be together again, and all our pain will be gone and God Himself shall wipe away every tear from our eyes." (Revelation 21:4)   Even though there is pain in the separation that death brings, there is a hope and joy, which is inexpressible, when you know that you will be reunited with your loved ones who placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior while they were alive.    As I left the cemetery, I wondered if the other families that had loved ones buried there had that same assurance or if theirs was a permanent and hopeless separation. You may ask how I can know for certain that there will be this reunion in heaven.   1 John 5:13 tells us, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may KNOW that you have eternal life." And in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 (Amplified Bible) we are told that the believers still living at the time of Christ's return, along with those who have died in Christ, shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air and thus we shall always (through the eternity of eternities) be with the Lord. back to Bloom Home