My wife and I were working in our home office and kitchen yesterday. I was at the computer and she was doing something in the kitchen while we both were listening to the music from Phantom of the opera.

At one point a song finished playing; I wasn't paying too much attention to it, but Melody commented, "You can play that song at my funeral."

I then asked, "What song?"

She said, "The one that just finished," and pointed at the name on the back of the CD box. The song was "All I Ask of You." This song asks that the person take time occasionally to think of the one who is now gone. As we looked at the list, she laughed and said, "Well, maybe this would be a better one to play." She pointed to another song entitled, "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again." I laughed with her, but the seriousness of the thought stayed with me through the day.

How many of us have lost friends, family, and loved ones to death and we do wish they were somehow here again. Many go to cemeteries and remember the ones they can no longer touch, hold or hear. It's not a new problem for our human experience, is it?

The challenge for us is to live in such a way that we can someday be with them in the presence of the Lord. David captured the sentiment well when he spoke about a son who had died and said, "I will go to him one day, but he cannot return to me." (2 Samuel 12:23 ERV) And as Christians, this statement means even more to us than it would have meant to David. The apostle Paul puts it this way:

For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus comes, God will bring back with Jesus all the Christians who have died.
I can tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not rise to meet him ahead of those who are in their graves. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the call of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, all the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and remain with him forever. So comfort and encourage each other with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:14-18)

Live in such a way that we can someday be with them!
Have you thought about what song you would like sung at your funeral? Might I suggest the old Fanny J. Crosby hymn that proclaims the great truth of redemption:

Redeemed how I love to proclaim it,
Redeemed by the blood of the lamb,
Redeemed through His infinite mercy,
His child and forever I am.

May you rest in eternal peace with the Lord who has redeemed you and the loved ones who have preceded you in death!