HILLS OF HARRISBURG

I remember the smell of the asphalt road
On a hot midsummer day
Ridin’ in the back, all the windows down
How that radio would play
With the wind just a whippin’ through all our hair
Little brother and I would say
“Faster, Daddy, go faster now!”
While my Momma hung on and prayed

Thrilling at life as it comes, full throttle, all senses engaged, enjoying just being alive…amazing and glorious childhood!! Oh how I long to live this way again!

I remember the smell of the gasoline
At the Sinclair dinosaur
Passin’ all the Yoo-hoos and Frosties round
Who could ever ask for more
Laughin’ we would be climbin’ into that car
Get that Chevy back on the road…

I am so grateful for the beautiful gift of memory, and even more grateful to have such blessed times to remember!

And yet these wonderful memories create such an intense yearning in my soul… the sweeter the memory, the deeper the longing. Some of these yearnings can become almost unbearable.

But for what? That misty, ethereal unknown that draws us to… well, we just can’t quite put words to it. I have come to believe that this inexplicable feeling that sometimes comes unbidden upon us has something, or everything, to do with the fact that God “has put eternity in their (our) hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end” (Ecclesiastes 3:11, emphasis mine). At least not this side of heaven!

“But as it is written:
‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’”
~ 1 Corinthians 2:9

So when that mysterious longing unexpectedly comes upon us, we can remember this: What is yet to come for those who love the Lord is an eternity of things that we cannot even begin to imagine!!

Come on, Daddy, O come on now
We’re all ready, get set, let’s go