When we have closed our eyes
To open them no more
When we have crossed from here to there
Like many gone before
When the Giver reclaims
The gifted breath he gave
Then, only then will we behold
What lies beyond the grave
When we have closed our eyes
To never-more-will-be
When we have written the last page
Of our life-legacy
It will be too late then
To change those things we chose
As we traverse that final realm
In death’s common repose
When we have closed our eyes
From sin and suff’ring free
When our testament is sealed
In thought and memory
When Jesus takes our hand
As that last bank we climb
The only footprints we will leave
Is what we did with Time
© Janet Martin
Funerals have a way of stirring tender truths within us...(we spent the day with family after a relative's funeral...a time to fellowship and remember) and we return to our homes to keep on keeping the faith.
It is customary in the culture I grew up in to sing this song at the graveside...and so we gathered where the sun gleamed on a heaven-gilded earth as we sang...(I like the 4th stanza)
Copyright: Public Domain
- Asleep in Jesus! Blessed sleep,
From which none ever wakes to weep;
A calm and undisturbed repose,
Unbroken by the last of foes. - Asleep in Jesus! Oh, how sweet,
To be for such a slumber meet,
With holy confidence to sing
That death has lost his venomed sting! - Asleep in Jesus! Peaceful rest,
Whose waking is supremely blest;
No fear, no woe, shall dim that hour
That manifests the Savior’s pow’r. - Asleep in Jesus! Oh, for me
May such a blessed refuge be!
Securely shall my ashes lie,
And wait the summons from on high. - Asleep in Jesus! Far from thee
Thy kindred and their graves may be;
But there is still a blessed sleep,
From which none ever wakes to weep.
First, as I was out with my camera this morning I thought it was far too lovely a day for a funeral; as we stood out at the grave I changed my mind. It was gift from God, this beautiful day!
Death, is reality of life indeed and what lies beyond it, no one knows, but yes what today god has given us is a gift and I am glad you took these photographs, a warm sunshine in snow.
ReplyDeleteDeath is the great Unknown but we do know this...We will meet God!
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