Heavenly Birthdays...

If you have ever heard the song "I can only imagine"...you will know the words of that song are so beautiful... I find myself wondering some of those words today...wondering what that first birthday in Heaven is like...do people tell you happy birthday...or are you all so consumed with the glory of the Lord...that you don't even know it is your birthday? I've been consumed with the thought of what it will be like to stand in His presence...if indeed we are able to stand rather than be bowed before Him...wondering what you all think...wondering if you pass each other along the way...giving a thumbs ups to one another...funny thought just hit me poppa...your thumb is standing straight again!!!! I try so hard to picture the beauty you behold each and every day...the street of gold...the precious stones...the streams... I know there may be no balloons or cake today...or cornbread or beans...or some of Maw maw's Polk greens...but I know with all that is within me there is joy, and no pain...and there is lots of smiles...there is laughter...praise and worship... I know that we, this side of heaven, have worshipped in a Sunday morning services...and by the time the song ends we can feel the very presence of our Holy God...but you...you all ARE in His presence...and as bad as you are missed...as bad as we'd love to see those smiles one last time...or one last hug...or one last anything...where you are IS what life is about...you all have accomplished our purpose for life...you have run the race... "We are surrounded by a great cloud of people whose lives tell us what faith means. So let us run the race that is before us and never give up. We should remove from our lives anything that would get in the way and the sin that so easily holds us back. Let us look only to Jesus, the One who began our faith and who makes it perfect. He suffered death on the cross. But he accepted the shame as if it were nothing because of the joy that God put before him. And now he is sitting at the right side of God’s throne." Hebrews 12:1-2 Those who have run before us...Abraham, Moses, King David, Daniel, Esther, John, Paul...and the list we read about goes on and on and on...and yet God gives us lives to witness as well...Willie, Harold, Kathy...our witnesses that have given us the example...through Jesus Christ, how to run in this life...I have full confidence that each one would spur us on to the upward calling in Christ...their faith has become sight!!! I have a witness I live with everyday. Scott runs as hard and fast after Jesus as anyone I've ever known...to those in heaven we say happy birthday to you all this month...and to those of us here, left to walk this earth a while longer...what kind of baton will we be passing to the next generation...I'll close with a few words of one last song... It's all about You, Jesus And all this is for You For Your glory and Your fame, It's not about me As if You should do things my way You alone are God and I surrender...to Your Ways