One of the most treasured memories of my pastor-father (Who would have celebrated his 100th birthday this month, were he still with us.) took place annually on the Sunday between Christmas and New Year. Following the sermon and prior to the closing prayer, he would always speak to those who had lost loved ones in the past year, then he would read the following poem. He never read it without his voice cracking with emotion. Having experienced the untimely death of my younger brother, Bob, in the past year, I searched for the poem to read it again. I found several versions of the poem and the author seems to be anonymous. Here\u2019s the way I remember it being read. If you have lost a loved one in the past year, I share this poem with you today.<\/p>\n
MY FIRST CHRISTMAS IN HEAVEN!<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve had my first Christmas in Heaven,
\nA glorious, wonderful day.
\nI stood with the saints of the ages
\nWho found Christ, the Truth and the Way.
\nI sang with the heavenly choir,
\nJust think, I who longed so to sing
\nAnd, oh, what celestial music
\nWe brought to our Savior and King!
\nWe sang the glad songs of redemption,
\nHow Jesus to Bethlehem came.
\nAnd how they called His name — Jesus —
\nThat all might be saved through His Name.
\nWe sang once again with the angels
\nThe song they sang that blest morn,
\nWhen shepherds first heard the glad story,
\nThat Jesus, the Savior, was born.
\nOh, loved ones, I wish you had been here!
\nNo Christmas on earth could compare
\nWith all of the rapture and glory
\nWe witnessed in Heaven so fair.
\nYou know how I always loved Christmas.
\nIt seemed such a wonderful day,
\nWith all of my loved ones around me
\nThe children so happy that day.
\nYes, now I can see why I loved it,
\nAnd, oh, what a joy it will be
\nWhen all of my loved ones are with me
\nTo share in the glories I see.
\nSo, dear ones on earth, here\u2019s my greeting.
\nLook up till the day dawn appears.
\nOh, what a Christmas awaits us
\nBeyond all our parting tears!<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore\u201d (Psalm 16:11)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the most treasured memories of my pastor-father (Who would have celebrated his 100th birthday this month, were he still with us.) took place annually on the Sunday between Christmas and New Year. Following the sermon and prior to the closing prayer, he would always speak to those who had lost loved ones in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monday-morning-manna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2421\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/discipleallnations.org\/members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}