Celebrate me home!

Today I attended my dear friend and coworkers husbands funeral. Dottie had been married to Jim for 39 wonderful years. There are moments and people in your life that you meet that completely change something inside of you. Today Dottie did that for me. Dottie has always been the warmest, kindest most welcoming person I've ever met. Over the past few months I've grown to know Dottie as a strong believer in God and an incredibly strong human being. Today that strength was shown in a way I can barely comprehend. See the last funeral I attended was that of my mom aka Sissy. I had to be "strong" for my grandma and my dad because I had always heard..."the hardest thing to lose is a spouse or a child." So after being as strong as possible for the both of them I was completely drained, I collapsed walking out of the funeral home, I couldn't even walk. I had nothing left for anyone else not even God or myself, so instead of embracing him and my faith I turned away from it only to find darkness and anger. Until recent years I never even went back to church. That changed 5 years ago when a friend at my old job invited me, to this day Im not sure Andrea knows how much of an impact that had on my life. Within months my now husband found me again and the rest is history. But today, today I found in Dottie something I've never known or even witnessed before. Dottie was a pillar of strength that had a solid foundation of faith and God. Of course Dottie was heartbroken and devastated but her ability to hand it over to God knowing that he had Jimmy and Jimmy was at peace with The Lord in paradise made me simply awestruck. She was doing to all what she has always done..she was warm and welcoming, grateful to us for being there and she was cracking jokes, smiling, and embracing everyone around her. Today Dottie's love for Jimmy and their ability to put Christ first in their home before all else wasn't just words it was alive. You could feel it in you, it shook you at your core. That is what faith is, that is what giving it all to The Lord is, that is what I hear people say they do....I have never actually met someone that emitted it, that wrapped you in it with them, that whole heartedly loved and breathed it. In our toughest times it's hard to show strength in faith, to let go and let god...today I witnessed that in its purest form and my soul is rattled/shaken up...shocked. Dottie said today "God is in business" and he certainly is. Today Dottie changed my life in profound way one that will help me on my path to truly letting go and letting god. This song we sang today (read below) puts it all in focus. Thank you Jimmy, Thank you Dottie. And to Sissy...I still miss you more than all the grains of sand in the world but I will work harder at celebrating you home! When the time comes and I am standing at the river That separates the two worlds that I love, Torn between my precious friends and my family and the place of peace that’s waiting up above, Hold my hand and stay there by my side. And when I finally step into the tide, Celebrate me home! Celebrate me there. Celebrate me in that land of wonder where nothing can compare. Celebrate me in that place Celebrate me saved by grace Don’t just sit and weep because I’m gone Celebrate me Home. I have spent most of my life on earth preparing To take the trip from here to Heaven’s throne. With the Shield and Word of God to guide me Its a comfort knowing I am not alone. So when I take my final fleeting breath and fade into the gentle sleep of death, Celebrate me home! Celebrate me there. Celebrate me in that land of wonder where nothing can compare. Celebrate me in that place Celebrate me saved by grace Don’t just sit and weep because I’m gone Celebrate me Home. No more broken dreams No more tears to cry Into my Father’s arms I’ll fly. Celebrate me home! Celebrate me there. Celebrate me in that land of wonder where nothing can compare. Celebrate me in that place Celebrate me saved by grace Don’t just sit and weep because I’m gone Celebrate me Home. Celebrate me Home!