For Those Facing the Loss of a Loved One

For some folks I know who are grieving the imminent home-going of a friend & family member.  For other folks I know who have already faced a loved one's home-going, especially those who did so through the devastating, overpowering road that is cancer.

This song absolutely wrecked me many years ago when I saw Wayne Watson perform it live (long before my own cancer journey began.)  Especially when he introduced it by talking about its inspiration: a family friend who died of cancer, leaving behind a husband & young children.  I love the brutal honesty of the words: "I'm trying hard not to think You unkind, but Heavenly Father, if You know my heart, surely you can read my mind..."

After hearing this song, and singing along with it several hundred times in my car & home, I adopted the phrase "The Ultimate Healing" into my regular language.  To be very clear, my clear P.E.T. scans are amazing & unlikely & unwarranted gifts from God.  I am SO thankful for them & so humbled by them & so prayerful for them to continue!  But with that said, my friends Jason & Margaret (among others I know) are utterly, totally, and ultimately healed, whereas I am not.  My existence still requires faith; their faith, on the other hand, is now sight.  They, not I, have received the ultimate healing!  (Very easy to say; VERY hard to process & internalize & live through!)

Note: No song--including this one!--has the power to take away your pain.  I wouldn't presume that at all.  But maybe, just maybe, it will help a few days down the road.

(Video of Wayne's song; no need to watch, just listen. 4:31)  "Home Free" by Wayne Watson

(Lyrics follow)

I'm trying hard not to think You unkind,

But Heavenly Father,

If You know my heart,

Surely You can read my mind.

Good people underneath the sea of grief;

Some get up and walk away,

Some will find ultimate relief.

 

Home free, eventually.

At the ultimate healing,

We will be home free.

Home free! Oh I've got a feeling.

At the ultimate healing,

We will be home free

 

Out in the corridors, we pray for life;

A mother for her baby,

A husband for his wife

Sometimes the good die young,

It's sad but true.

And while we pray for one more heartbeat,

The real comfort is with You.

 

You know pain has little mercy,

And suffering's no respecter of age,

Of race, or position.

 I know every prayer gets answered,

But the hardest one to pray is slow to come:

'Oh Lord, not mine, but Your will be done.'

Let it be.

 

Home free, eventually.

At the ultimate healing,

We will be home free.

Home free! Oh I've got a feeling.

At the ultimate healing,

We will be home free.

 

Home free, eventually.

At the ultimate healing,

Gonna be home free

 

Home free, oh its more than a feeling.

At the ultimate healing,

Gonna be home free

Published by

Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.

 

Come, Lord Jesus.  Come near-term, to those facing the death of a loved one.  Come ultimately, to all of us, as you usher in the new world where cancer & death will barely be a memory. 

I.  Can't.  Wait!

 

The years of our life are seventy,

or even by reason of strength eighty;

yet their span is but toil and trouble;

they are soon gone, and we fly away...

So teach us to number our days

that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Return, O Lord! How long?

Have pity on your servants!

Psalm 90:10, 12, 13

 

Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways,

and how small a whisper do we hear of him!

But the thunder of his power who can understand?”Job 26:14