I've mentioned before the image (word picture) I have of reaching out and holding HIS hand and how GOD leads me - ONE STEP AT A TIME . . . today's devo ended with "Hold My hand in childlike trust, and the way before you will open up step by step." 

"Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.  You guide me with your counsel, and afterward You will take me into glory."  Psalm 73:23-24

I really could end right there especially with the last part of that verse, "afterward you will take me into glory"!  What a promise to hang on to.  

In my reading in the past couple of months, I've come across the "thought" that with each day that passes I'm one day FROM the last time that I saw Rick, yet with each day that passes, I'm one day CLOSER to Heaven (and seeing Rick again) ♥ well, alrighty then, I can live with that.  Do I still miss Rick desperately?  Yes.  Do the "oddest" things make me lonesome for him?  Yes.  Do I still wonder "why"?  Yes.  But, again, in the midst of the missing, the loneliness, the wondering, I am assured that "afterward You will take me into glory", and that is where Rick already is, waiting for us!  Most recently, I read the thought of being one day closer to Heaven on my new friend Leah's blog (you can read it HERE!).  She ended that thought with "I long to be Home but not one day earlier than God calls me."  That is a PERFECT way to sum those thoughts up!  I LONG to be Home in Heaven, reunited with Rick, but that won't happen ONE DAY EARLIER than God calls me - not one day before He has planned for me.  And with that comfort is the comfort that all the days of all of our lives (Rick's included) are numbered by HIM, not by us.  So again, that peace that passes understanding is reinforced!

This is my temporary home

It's not where I belong

Windows and rooms that I'm passin' through

This was just a stop on the way to where I'm going

I'm not afraid because I know . . . this was my

TEMPORARY HOME!

With the thoughts of Heaven that were on my mind today, it wasn't surprising that while I was on the treadmill, watching American Idol, one of the contestants sang Carrie Underwood's song "Temporary Home". . .  this isn't where I BELONG, I'm just PASSIN' THROUGH, just a stop on the way to where I'm going.  I'm not afraid because I know . . . this IS my TEMPORARY HOME! ♥  When I think of how excited people are when they are moving to a new home, having theirs remodeled, or even carpeted and painted, HOW MUCH MORE excited should we be that we have something SO MUCH BETTER than any new home on earth waiting for us . . . our FOREVER, HEAVENLY home! ♥  But, (to quote an old hymn) . . . My heart can sing when I pause to remember, a heartache here is but a stepping stone, along a trail that's winding always upward, this troubled world is NOT my final home!  But, until then, my heart will go on singing, until then, with joy I'll carry on, until the day, my eyes behold that city, until the day God calls me home. ♥