I AM going to celebrate this day starting with a memory and a song.
It was on Easter morning of 2012 that Mom and I were slogging our carcasses out of bed and heading for the coffee maker when I flipped on the TV on the way to the kitchen. We had the channel set on the only Christian channel in Canada at the time and I could hear in the background a church service taking place. I looked at the clock and realized it was Charles Price and it was just beginning. He prayed and then welcomed "Keith and Kristyn Getty", whom I had never heard of before.
By then Mom had worked her way onto the couch with her cup of coffee and her walker in tow. She was just making herself comfortable and I was grabbing my stuff when the music began...
"Creation sings the Father's song.
He calls the sun to wake the dawn ..."
It was an amazing live version of that song (that I haven't been able to find since.)
When it was complete both Mom and I were completely awake and our eyes were glistening with tears. She turned to me and said what Mom says to me every Easter morning, "Next year in Jerusalem, Laura-Lee!" as we both anticipate the return of Jesus to the earth to set up His physical Kingdom here and reign from His throne in Jerusalem.
I didn't know it at the time but that was the last earthly Easter I shared with Mom. She died in March of 2013. That year at Easter, less than a month after her death and deep in grief, I still had the presence of mind to play that song again which I possessed having downloaded the entire album it came from. "Awaken the Dawn". And when the song had finished I knew again the reality of the words,
"Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.
14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
18 Therefore encourage one another with these words."
(1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)
NOW that we are actually in the End Times, witnessing the final days of life on earth as we know it and anticipating being "caught up together" (aka. The Rapture) at any moment, those words are on my tongue DAILY!
I hope and pray to see ALL of you "Next year in Jerusalem!"
I'll be easy to spot. I'll be the one standing with my arm wrapped around my Mom.
Truth, with Love,
Always, Laura-Lee
LINK "Creation Sings the Father's Song" (Lyric video)
LYRICS:
"Creation sings the Father's song; He calls the sun to wake the dawn
And run the course of day 'till evening falls in crimson rays.
His fingerprints in flakes of snow, His breath upon this spinning globe,
He charts the eagle's flight; commands the newborn baby's cry.
Hallelujah! Let all creation stand and sing,
"Hallelujah!" Fill the earth with songs of worship;
Tell the wonders of creation's King.
Creation gazed upon His face; the ageless One in time's embrace
Unveiled the Father's plan of reconciling God and man.
A second Adam walked the earth, whose blameless life would break the curse,
Whose death would set us free to live with Him eternally.
Hallelujah! Let all creation stand and sing,
"Hallelujah!" Fill the earth with songs of worship;
Tell the wonders of creation's King.
Creation longs for His return, when Christ shall reign upon the earth;
The bitter wars that rage are birth pains of a coming age.
When He renews the land and sky, all heaven will sing and earth reply
With one resplendent theme: the glory of our God and King!
Hallelujah! Let all creation stand and sing,
"Hallelujah!" Fill the earth with songs of worship;
Tell the wonders of creation's King.
Hallelujah! Let all creation stand and sing,
"Hallelujah!" Fill the earth with songs of worship;
Tell the wonders of creation's King.
Fill the earth with songs of worship;
Tell the wonders of creation's King."
