“This is the first time the family has been all together.”

 Until his wife said it, I had never thought about the fact that the family had never been all together. 

My mom was one of six children, although the oldest boy, Edwin, died as a young boy from diphtheria. And my Uncle Phil was not yet born when Edwin died. My mom’s father died young, the result of developing gangrene in his leg after falling out of a tree in the orchard that he managed. He died at the age of 42, when my Uncle Phil was only 3.

As I have continued to mull over that statement, other things have come to mind. Mostly lyrics to songs. The first being “May the Circle be Unbroken,” a frequently sung hymn when I was a child, but not sung in church in my recent memory. When I looked up the lyrics, I realized I have forgotten most parts of this hymn, remembering only the refrain.

Each verse talks of different times that are common to all of us: the loved ones now in glory, our joyous childhood when those now gone pointed us to Jesus, as we age and remember the hymns we sang as children. And then the last verse asks the poignant question, that as one by one the family has departed, will the circle be unbroken? 

“When you close your earthly story, will you join in their bliss?”

That choice is ours. I can choose to acknowledge that I can never be good enough to earn my way to heaven. I need to recognize that it is only by Christ’s death in my place that I can be restored to right relationship with a holy God. When I place my faith in Christ alone,  I can know that at my death I will be “absent from the body and present with the Lord.” We can choose to keep the circle unbroken or we can be the one to break it.

The other hymn that keeps coming to mind is “When we all get to heaven,” especially that line that says “what a day of rejoicing that will be.” And first and foremost, it will be because we will see Jesus, but it will also be the chance to see our loved ones who have gone ahead.

I look forward to meeting my maternal grandfather, seeing my maternal grandmother of whom I have only limited, but fond memories, my parents, the uncle who died before I was born and my mom’s other siblings who have gone before and kept that circle unbroken. And that is just those on my mom’s side. 

My prayer is that you will keep that circle unbroken. I pray that my life is lived in such a way that my impact, especially on each of our precious grandchildren, will result in their desire to keep that circle unbroken.

When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be!