it will be forever

There is a song that is short but had an impact on me, I have listened to it quite a lot, the words are:

How could I be this at ease with him? Pour out my heart as I please with him? He isn’t you…he isn’t you… When will I feel so in bloom again? When will his voice warm the room again? He isn’t you…he isn’t you… Memories may fade in the shadows behind me but there’ll be the dream that will always remind me – a dream that I’ll be forever comparing him to… For love me, he may even die for me, sweep every cloud from the sky for me, He may be king, but he’ll never be you…

The point is that no one can ever take the place of another. You can be a place keeper, fill up some lonely minutes, or hours, but when push comes to shove there will always be something about that other person you will miss, the way that person laughs or smiles, a special fragrance you associate with them, their favorite food, so many things that the list could go on for pages without end.

My mother died on Christmas Day, which is also my birthday, the next year right before Christmas I woke one morning with tears streaming down my face, I was dreaming that I had forgotten to buy my mother a Christmas present and then I realized why I hadn’t done so and I began to cry, that is what made me wake up.

I realize my children miss their grandparents very much, they were both raised living in the house with them so losing them both within the span of eighteen months was hard. Neither one of them stopped to think about the fact that I was consumed 24/7 with their care and well-being and that was because of the depth of the love I had for them and the great hole it left in my life… but if I were continually grieved and sad, I would be taking away great chunks of happiness from their life. They need to see me happily cooking or laughing at their constant antics and corny jokes and being joyous, a mother and grandmother that is always there for them. 

I used to wonder how it was possible for a person to love more than one person, I took the song “When I fall in love it will be forever” quite seriously, but as life happened, I realized that your heart can expand and take in another love, not to replace the first but to enrich your current place in life when death or some other life circumstance has happened.

Those were my thoughts this evening as I thought upon people who have come and gone from my life and from the lives of others around me, and then something else worked its way into my brain…

There was a time in the distant past that the only atonement for sin was the shed blood of a lamb, a goat or other suitable animal. A priest offered up these blood sacrifices for themselves and for the people, until…

Romans 5: 9-11 Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!

Now we know that there is someone who can completely take our place by coming to this earth as a human, being born in a simple manger and then giving His own life’s blood so that we can have eternal life.

Jesus really fell in love with us and it will be forever, Merry Christmas!