Pop’s Page

Today was a bit of a turning point for me in church. During our married life it was Susan’s custom to reach over during the pastoral prayer and put her beautiful and delicate hand in mine. This act was a symbol of our union as man and wife as we bowed before our Maker and joined with the Body of Christ in prayer for our brothers and sisters. In the last 3 years part of the prayer was always for her and for us. Of all the segments of the worship service, the pastoral prayer has been the hardest for me since Susan’s death. There has been no hand to hold.

Today, Jamie sat next to her uncle, and just like her aunt, at the pastoral prayer she reached over and put her hand under and around my arm. I responded by placing my hand over hers. Before long I was fishing for my handkerchief to loan to her as the tears flowed down her cheeks. I appreciated Jamie’s reaching out to me like this, and the fact that I could handle it emotionally was evidence that I am making progress in my grieving. I was also touched by the prayer of Mark Peck, filling in for Pastor Dave today, when he prayed explicitly for me in his prayer and asked the Lord to comfort me in my grief. I have been.

As I think about Susan each day, and where she is now, I often think of that prayer she prayed before her death based on Revelation 4. That’s the chapter that talks about the 24 elders and four living creatures and the heavenly host casting down their golden crowns before the throne of the Lord. So it was particularly meaningful today when we sang the hymn Love Divine, All Loves Excelling (529 in the New Trinity). The last stanza of that hymn goes like this:

Finish, then, Thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be.
Let us see Thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in Thee;
Changed from glory into glory,
Till in heaven we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before Thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise.

Now whenever I sing this hymn I have this picture in my mind of Susan and Mom, clothed in their glorious heavenly attire, singing in perfect and wondrous voices along with the heavenly host, casting their crowns before the Great King. Think how it must have been when they arrived. They truly would have been “lost in wonder” as they drank in the heavenly sights that go on forever, and as they are overwhelmed by the love and praise that pours out of the heavenly chorus in welcome, and as they are greeted by Him Who is the Author and Finisher of their faith….and ours.