Wednesday, February 17, 2010

temporary home

Many of you probably know the popular Carrie Underwood song "Temporary Home." As I was driving to school this morning, I realized that I had never really thought about the meaning of the title, so I wanted to really listen to the lyrics. I was touched from the very beginning, and then the last verse started...

Old man, hospital bed
The room is filled with people he loves
And he whispers don't cry for me
I'll see you all someday
He looks up and says "I can see God's face"

...yup, at this point, I have goosebumps all over and tears are pouring down my face. Pure beauty. It makes me think of a story I heard at a conference about an old man who was told that he had roughly 20 minutes left to live. After about a minute, with a huge smile on his face, he starts yelling "19 minutes until I get to be with my Savior!" When the 20 minutes had passed, he informed his nurse that it had been 20 minutes and he wanted to know why he hadn't gone home yet.

Of course there is a huge part of me that is so excited to go to heaven and spend eternity with my Savior, but there is also that selfish, worldly part of me that can only think of all the things I want to see and do before I die. What keeps me going is the excitement of knowing that someday I will get to see God's face! This hope reassures that what God has for me in heaven is better than any earthly thing and that this is just my temporary home.