heavenly home – Song Dive

The next entry for my Blog is Me on Your Mind, which was written by Matthew West, Jeff Pardo, and Anne Wilson. It was first released February 18, 2022. A link to Matthew West singing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

I’ve read the words in red
How You leave the 99
To find the one missing
Feels like that was written
With me on Your mind

And the prodigal son who ran, leaving his home behind
The part where the father came running to meet him
Did You say that with me on Your mind?

Who am I that the King of the world
Would give one single thought about my broken heart?
Who am I that the God of all grace
Wipes the tears from my face and says, “Come as you are”?
You paid the price, You took the cross
You gave Your life and You did it all with me on Your mind (oh, oh, oh, oh, oh)
Me on Your mind (oh, oh, oh, oh, oh)

Just knowing You’re mindful of me
Just knowing You call me Your child
It’s flooding my soul with unspeakable hope
Thank You, Lord, that it’s me on Your mind

I’ve read the words in red of a heavenly home on high
You’re preparing a place where the sorrow’s erased
And when I stand before You, I’ll find
All along, it was me on Your mind

Who am I that the King of the world
Would give one single thought about my broken heart?
And who am I that the God of all grace
Wipes the tears from my face and says, “Come as you are”?
You paid the price, You took the cross
You gave Your life and You did it all with me on Your mind (oh, oh, oh, oh, oh)
With me on Your mind (oh, oh, oh, oh, oh)

Woah (oh, oh, oh, oh, oh)
It was me on Your mind

I believe we all have times in our life when we feel all alone and we often get down and out and feeling sorry for ourselves. Unfortunately, many people have this feeling way too many times and they lead very sad lives. Maybe our friends and our families try to encourage us, but they really don’t understand. The words of encouragement and friendly hugs and prayers may be there, but your heart is still hurting and sad. Some people, such as our Christian friends, may encourage us to read our bibles and read about the promises of God in hopes that it brings us out of our depression. Have you ever been in this situation before? If so; didn’t you feel completely hopeless? It seems even more distressing when you are in a group of people and everything in life seems perfect with them.

The writers of the song refer to the text in the bible that is written in red. These red letters are words that came from Jesus, the son of the almighty God. Not every bible has these letters, but the red-letter editions always put the words of Jesus in red. There is a story in the bible that Jesus shared in the book of Matthew 18:12-14, which tells us just how much Jesus loves us and views each of us as his children. “If a shepherd has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So, it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.” We are the lost sheep until we acknowledge Jesus as our savior and God as our father. No matter how far we wander away from God, he will be there with us. Yes, the 99 sheep are still as important to him as they have always been, but for that moment in time; he is focused on getting us into the flock and becoming part of his eternal family. When I reflect on the scripture above, it does seem as if I was the lost sheep Jesus came after and the red letters I had been reading were referring to me. It is so important to know that none of us are ever alone and we can never hide from the eyes of God.

The writers of the song also tell us about a family member who ran away from home with the dreams of getting everything he wanted in life. His father gave him his share of the inheritance and he went and squandered it all within a short time. This parable is found in the book of Luke 15:11-22, “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. None of us are perfect, we all make mistakes every single day. We say things we don’t mean and do things we don’t really mean to do. God loves me when I hold him close to my heart and God still loves me when I wander away. So maybe this story fits all of us in some way.

The chorus of the song is so powerful as it describes how the king of this entire world with its billions of people, still loves me and watches out for me every single day. Why am I so special that he wipes the tears from my eyes, heals the hurts in my heart, and loves me unconditionally? It is because each of us are his children and no matter how bad we act, he loves us unconditionally. He allowed his only son to suffer a brutal death on the cross, so that we could spend eternity with him. He wants us to come to him as we are and find comfort in his love. I don’t know if I will ever be able to comprehend the depth of God’s love, but I do know he always has me on his mind and in his heart. One day I will join him in the heavenly home he has prepared just for me and he has a special home for everyone who accepts him as their father and Jesus as their savior. The day Jesus died, you and I were on his mind.

Click to Hear Matthew West Sing Me on Your Mind

I Can Only Imagine

I can only imagine what it will be like
When I walk, by your side
I can only imagine what my eyes will see
When you face is before me
I can only imagine
I can only imagine
Surrounded by You glory
What will my heart feel
Will I dance for you Jesus
Or in awe of You be still
Will I stand in your presence
Or to my knees will I fall
Will I sing hallelujah
Will I be able to speak at all
I can only imagine
I can only imagine
I can only imagine when that day comes
When I find myself standing in the Son
I can only imagine when all I would do is forever
Forever worship You
I can only imagine
I can only imagine
Surrounded by Your glory
What will my heart feel
Will I dance for You, Jesus
Or in awe of you be still
Will I stand in your presence
Or to my knees will I fall
Will I sing hallelujah
Will I be able to speak at all
I can only imagine
I can only imagine hey ya ah
Surrounded by Your glory
What will my heart feel
Will I dance for You, Jesus
Or in awe of you be still
Will I stand in Your presence
Or to my knees will I fall
Will I sing hallelujah
Will I be able to speak at all
I can only imagine
I can only imagine hey ya ah
I can only imagine yeah yeah
I can only imagine
I can only imagine ey ey ey
I can only imagine
I can only imagine when all I will do
Is forever, forever worship You
I can only imagine

Knowing what you know today about Jesus, can you imagine what it would be like to be one of the disciples? They had the opportunity to spend almost every day for three years with him. At that point in time, perhaps they didn’t fully understand everything that we understand today. I don’t believe they started getting the true feeling of who Jesus was until he not only rose from the dead, but re-appeared to all of them. They also were able to see him ascending into heaven forty days after he rose from the grave. They were so blessed to spend that time with him and to see him as a man who lived with them, see him as the son of God, and see him rise into heaven to await our final coming home.

We sometimes struggle with our faith and perhaps envy the disciples who were with Jesus. Our challenge is that even though we can’t physically see Jesus, we must trust in his promise of eternity with him. It is during these questioning times that we must focus on what Hebrews 11:1 tells us:
Now faith is the assurance that what we hope for will come about and the certainty that what we cannot see exists.

We have to trust in his word and know that we are no different from the people who were with Jesus. Yes, they walked with Jesus, but they also saw him leave. From that point forward, they, like us, had to have strong faith since that is what we have to hang onto every single day as the world via Satan and his dominions try to take it away from us.

Now I want to take a look at this song with the above narrative in mind. We have accepted Christ as our Lord and savior and have faith in his words and his promises. The time to enter our eternal home is now upon us, we can’t wait to meet him face to face. What will it be like? Perhaps Jesus comes up beside us as we enter our heavenly home and then walks along the path with us, maybe there is a brief silence as reality sinks in. We are probably a little scared as we turn to face him for the first time and look into his eyes. In those eyes, we will only see love and compassion as we have never known; coming from someone who only sees us as one of God’s perfect creations. For the first time, we realize what unfailing love really means. Indeed, we can only imagine what that will be like.

We will be surrounded by his glory, which I perceive to be a visual view of love that radiates from the inside. This love overcomes everything in its path and it will almost be as if we are surrounded by brightness and radiance we have never known, since we have always lived in a dark world of sin. It will also be the first time we have been surrounded by the perfection that only Christ can bring. How will we react? As humans, we probably expect our hearts to be racing, we may feel as if we are having trouble breathing, and our bodies just seem locked in place. As this feeling passes, maybe our dancing will start; perhaps we will dance our hearts out as David did. We are told in II Samuel 6:14

And David danced before the Lord with all his might.

Notice it doesn’t say that David did a little swaying to the music or a gentle waltz, he danced as hard as he could. Maybe we will be like David or maybe we will be in such awe being in the presence of our savior that we simply fall to our knees or perhaps fall completely prostrate in worship. We have lived for this moment all of our lives, to be at the feet of Jesus. We are told many places in the scripture to sing praises to the Lord, sing out his holy name, and lift up our voices to him. Isaiah 12:1-6 is a good example of how we should praise our Lord.

   “Give praise to the LORD, proclaim his name;
   make known among the nations what he has done,
   and proclaim that his name is exalted.
   5 Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things;
   let this be known to all the world.
   6 Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion,
   for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.”
   We know that is what we are supposed to do, but will we be able to even    speak in his presence; much less sing?

I am not sure how we can prepare for the day we first come face to face with Jesus, I believe each of us will respond differently based on the unique individual we are and that God created. As we stand there in the midst of heaven surrounded by love, our hearts will be filled with love, thankfulness, and praise we have never known in our human bodies. We will have the desire to worship our Lord at all times. We won’t have any trouble singing his praises, singing to him, joining in with the angels; our lives will begin anew. How great will it be to just be able to talk to Jesus face to face?

What a day that will be, when we meet our savior face to face, and join those loved ones who made it there before us. We remember the day they left us and the tears that we shed and now the tears of sadness are replaced with tears of joy. I can share all of my thoughts on this song and suggest how we may react as we arrive at our eternal home, but the reality is, I can only imagine.