Will there be meatloaf in heaven?

Recently, I made the familiar 160 mile drive to Albany, where I was born and raised, and where
family memories play hide and seek behind low rock walls along the New York State Thruway, and yell “home free!” most often, it seems, when I pull in to the parking lot of Keenan’s Funeral Parlor.

Here, the bodies of a generation of deceased loved ones have laid in repose, allowing those of us left behind to have a few more brief hours of their presence before the casket closes and we face the reality that they are gone, at least from this earthly life.

This was one of those days, but the service, though not Catholic, was one of the most moving I have experienced.

A reformed minister led us in prayer and song in the funeral parlor, before inviting family members and friends of Wayne, my cousin’s husband, to share their thoughts and memories.

A steady stream of guests took the microphone at this good-bye celebration of Wayne’s life, and brought us to tears of laughter and sorrow as they shared their experiences.

I will never forget the story shared by Wayne’s sister when she matter-of-factly suggested that Wayne would now know the answer to one of his frequent questions as a child: Will there be meatloaf in heaven?

As a young child, Wayne wasn’t just asking if he would have the pleasure of eating a favorite food after death. He was asking for assurance.

We do the same thing as adults.

We need to be assured through words and behavior that we are loved, that we are secure, that there is no boogey man under our bed, or in our relationships.

We want insight into the unknown, the dark, the mysterious – including the mind of our teenager, or our spouse!

We desire truth, and that assurance our fears are allayed.

Perhaps that is why blind Christian hymnist Francis Crosby wrote, in 1873, the comforting and memorable words, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!”

Composing more than 8,000 hymns, Fanny, as she was well-known, said of her blindness, "The first face ever to gladden my sight will be when I get to heaven and behold the face of the One who died for me. . . .  I verily believe that God intended that I should live my days in physical darkness so that I might be better prepared to sing His praise and lead others from spiritual darkness into eternal light.  With sight I would have been too distracted to have written thousands of hymns."

Fanny’s faith, a gift from God which she freely embraced, was the source of her confidence in the promises of God. Jesus invites us to do the same, strengthened by the Word of God: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

Certainly, with faith, there is no boogeyman that cannot be dispelled by the light of Christ.

 “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of His Spirit, washed in His blood. Perfect submission, all is at rest, I in my Savior am happy and blest, watching and waiting, looking above, filled with His goodness, lost in His love.”  Fanny Crosby

Comments

[Jason]

I love meatloaf...I hope they serve it in heaven. I hope even more that I get a seat at the table.