A Taste of Heaven

Aug 27, 2010 by

I don’t even know where to begin to explain how very special this last week was for me.  The way the Lord took my precious daddy to heaven has grown my faith in ways nothing else could have.  The way God’s timing was so perfect – my oldest daughter was home and was able to really pitch in and be a “fill-in-mom”.  Even though it was the first week of school for her younger siblings, she kept them all going and made it such that they were able to go to all their activities without missing a beat.  ONLY GOD could orchestrate that!

Then there was the funeral itself.  We were so grateful that the Lord choreographed it!  The music was so perfect.  Mom’s cousin, Marion, is the pianist at their little church and Marion had to go to be with her daughter to facilitate welcoming a new grand baby into the the household.  Then, the alternate pianist also was unavailable so my brother was agonizing over what we should do for music.  We prayed about it and almost instantly my brother thought of his friend, Joey Applegarth.  Joey is a professional musician with his wife.  They travel all over and sing gospel (somewhat country) CHRISTIAN music.  Tim called Joey and Joey immediately said, “Yes” to the request to play at dad’s funeral.  He and his wife played beautiful music for 1/2 hour before the service started and then Joey sang a solo called, “His Sheep Am I”.  The song was so fitting.  My dad would have loved it!

The slideshow I had prepared was another trial-turned-God’s-GLORIOUS-Victory-moment.  I had forgotten the adapter for my Mac computer and we couldn’t hook up to the projector.  The funeral was in Hay Springs, Nebraska which is not exactly the technology mecca of the USA…in fact, they had NO available resources to offer me to help with the connections.  It went from bad to worse as I talked to the ONE computer guy in Hay Springs and wanted to rent or borrow a regular laptop to run the show…none were anywhere to be found in the whole town.  My wonderful husband suggested I put the show on a memory stick and run it off my brothers big, old computer…so I tried that.  Then I couldn’t get the projector to WORK.  I got my sister and although the Pentacostal method of prayer is not our first response in most cases…we literally laid hands on the projector and prayed over it!  The Lord must have spoken a “word” over it because it turned on when I pushed the button and I thought we were good to go.  The next morning when I got to the church early to set the slideshow up, my brother and I discovered that none of the plugs in the church had three-prong capabilities!  ARGH!  So my brother had to run to the hardware store to buy some adaptors.  Then we couldn’t get the sound to work right…more prayer.  Immediately, I figured out what button I needed to push and we were once again, back in business!  I was so grateful that Josh had made the slide show before my visit when I went out in late July.  Not only was it ready for dad’s funeral but my father had seen it – and had watched it about 15 times one of the days I had been there in July.  All the way around that slide show the Lord had helped make it just perfect!

I had prayed I could deliver the tribute to dad’s life without crying.  God helped me make it through without any tears.  Another reason to praise HIM.

The sermon by the pastor was exactly what we had asked for.  He tied dad’s favorite verses into it and gave the gospel message clearly.  He really honored dad’s life.  Then when we went to the gravesite there were 11 of the VFW vets standing at attention by his grave.  Two, young, Air Force cadets were also at attention and saluted the hearse as it pulled up.  My dad would have loved seeing that.  He was so proud to serve his country.  The cadets draped dad’s coffin with a flag for the committal service and then afterwards they folded it and presented it to my mom.  Every part of it was so perfect – so fitting.

After dad’s funeral we went to the little restaurant in town called “Pheasant Run”.  The man who owns it is a service disabled veteran.  He made the meal for all the people that had attended dad’s funeral and on his sign he wrote, “We are closed to today for a private party for a fellow veteran.”  This was such a wonderful part of the day.  My mom was showered with love from the community.  The ladies from all the different churches in town had each contributed a cake.  There were about 8 different kinds of cake there!  Several of the ladies had known my mom from her “Lunch Bunch” that she used to go to before dad got so sick.  It was so encouraging to see that they had remembered mom in such a nice gesture.

Another wonderful thing about the meal after the funeral is that I was able to see the Lord literally giving my brother friends.  Since my dad really had been my brother’s best friend, I have grieved for Tim’s loss. But as I saw the people that came to support my family, and I watched Tim talking to the different men I realized the Lord had already placed some very appropriate people in Tim’s path that would be good friends to him now that dad is in heaven.

All these things were like an additional, little taste of Heaven.  Knowing that the Lord really does give us blessings like this is so special!

Here are the words to the song that was sung:  His Sheep Am I

In God’s green pastures feeding, by His cool waters lie, Soft in the evening walk my Lord and I; All the sheep of His pasture fare so wondrously fine, His sheep am I. Waters cool, [in the valley] pastures green, [on the mountain] In the evening walk my Lord and I; Dark the night, [in the valley,] rough the way, [on the mountain,]Step by step, [step by step,] my Lord and I.

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