Joy In The Journey

  Do you sometimes wish that you could go to heaven, if Jake and you could go together?  My niece asked me a question something like this not to long ago. 

   Not just Jake and I but all four of us, yes I do, it would have to be all four of us because I could not bare the thought of Tyler and Angeline having to go through another tragedy but if in someway the four of us could all enter the gates of heaven and meet Roderick there and all be together again, that would be so amazing.  Being surrounded with the kind of love that we could only taste a tiny bit of here.  Who wouldn’t want that?

   I do not need to think along these lines for long and I realize I am content to stay here a little longer.  My kids they still need me, I cannot leave them living in a home without a mother, now when they are their normal sweet selves anybody would be there for them and love them but when they have their moments that are not so loving and sweet then I’m convinced that nobody would love them the way I do.  Now I know that God would be there for them and I also know that should that be the case God would send people to be there for them even at their worst moments but so I feel.  Maybe when they are on their own and have their own families then I could go, they wouldn’t need me much anymore but no, I don’t want my grandchildren to have to go to grandparents day every year and borrow someone else’s grandma because their grandma can’t make it.  I don’t want my grandkids to wonder why their grandma is not there to watch their games, dance, or piano recital like their friends’ grandmas.  I guess I’ll have to wait awhile before I’m ready to go but I don’t mind because Roderick is so well taken care of in heaven.  Here our kids need their parents, who gave birth to them to take care of them until they learn to understand the love of their real father but in heaven they have not the parents who gave birth to them but the father who actually planned their lives before they were born and who knit them together in their mother’s womb, so I have no reason to worry about Roderick.  When I pray for Tyler and Angeline about my concerns for them or their struggles and desire for them to make the right choices I no longer have any concerns or worries about Roderick.  Instead I always add to my prayers “Thank-you Lord that Roderick is with You in heaven”.

  When I think about how beautiful and how wonderful heaven is with no worries, no weariness and only all joy and happiness forever and ever then I think, ‘what is another 60 years compared to eternity and even though there is sadness and grief I have to go through I am quite content to deal with that for a little longer and finish my course here on earth and focus on the joys in my journey for in the end it will be worth it all.

  

   Maybe this sounds sad and discouraging but quite honestly since Roderick has moved to heaven I have spent so much time reading about heaven and imagining it that it has become so real to me and I find it brings me joy in the journey.  I feel like everyone should read about heaven, it makes the struggles and trials seem so insignificant while the joys and victories seem so much greater.  We don’t want to just waste our time on this earth sitting and waiting until we get to go to heaven but if we truly knew the joy of heaven this journey would be so much more enjoyable.  It’s like running a race but focusing on the reward in the end.  Yes there are aches and pains but they seem insignificant because your running a race and you know you are winning.  If you’re only running through this life but you have no idea what your running for, you’re just running and running aaannd running having no idea when it will end, you begin to feel the pain in the muscles and the aches in the bones and all you can think about is when will this pain end, why do I keep running, what’s the use yet you can’t stop because life continues and you have to go with it.  I truly believe the more real heaven is to us the more we can enjoy the race but only if we actually run the race not if we sit down and wait until heaven will come to us now that’s just depressing.

Joy In The Journey

Verse:

Along with friends and family, we travel up the road

A happy band of pilgrims, Heaven is our goal

And we love this life we're living, discovering each day

That the joys of the journey are many on the way

Verse:

Now we're moving with a purpose, an eternal point of view

Like the years that hurry by us, we're only passing through

Now we work for Jesus gladly, to give our best away

Satisfied in knowing our labor's not in vain

Chorus:

And there's joy in the journey, good times in the going

It's not all in the reaping, there's plenty in the sowing

Taking pleasure in the progress, we make from day to day

Oh, there's joy in the journey, to Heaven all the way

(key change)

Verse:

Well, it's true there are some struggles, and sure there are some tears

But they're so outweighed by blessing they just fade and disappear

Now we're helping one another as to higher ground we climb

And the light on the horizon gets brighter all the time