Adjusting my vision to the dim theater, I pushed my mom’s pink wheelchair up the slope to the handicapped space and helped her remove her winter coat. I plopped into the seat next to her followed by my giggling girlfriends.

One of them was turning forty and we were celebrating! 

I whispered to the birthday girl, “Thank you for inviting my mom. She will only be visiting me one more week.” 

The birthday girl smiled as the movie started and grabbed another handful of popcorn.

Towards the end of the film, I Can Only Imagine, my mom leaned towards me and said, “I want this song at my funeral.”

Shocked, I looked at her with tears running down my cheeks and said, “Don’t talk like that.”

But my mom insisted. “When I go home to Jesus, I want this song.”

Six months later I remembered her wish as she lost her battle with Lou Gehrig’s disease. 

I didn’t think it would be that fast, but she was ready to go home.

What is she experiencing now, and what will our eternity be like?

“God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no longer exist; grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer, because the previous things have passed away.” Revelation 21:3b-4

My mom is healed and walking on streets of gold with Jesus. She is chatting with loved ones, bible characters, and her miscarried grand babies (2 Samuel 12:23).

All of her trials and troubles forgotten. 

No sun, moon, or lamps are needed because God’s glory illuminates it. 

The beautiful city has twelve pearly gates and precious stones for its foundation. A crystal river flows from God’s throne, and the tree of life bears twelve kinds of fruit, one for each month (Revelations 21-22). 

We will see His face and His name will be on our foreheads. We are known and secure in our final home. 

As we serve and find ourselves in various earthly home, remember they are temporary. We are simply passing through until the Lord calls us to our eternal home. I can only imagine what it will be like.