One More Day with Your Loved One – What Would You Do Differently?

How many of us have wished for just one more day with our loved one? What would you do differently? How would you spend it?

Were there things left unsaid? Or would you simply just hold one another and let the love in your heart fill in all the empty places within?

This week a new song was released by Casting Crowns, Scars in Heaven. I was in the middle of making lunch for a family get together when it began to play. All I needed to hear was the first line and it immediately had my attention. 

“If I had only known the last time would be the last time.”

13 words that had the ability to pierce my heart like an arrow to a bullseye.

I began to think, “What would I do differently?”

The tears had already begun falling as I continued to listen…

“I woulda put off all the things I had to do.
I would’ve stayed a little longer, held on a little tighter.”

Where did those words come from? How did he know the intimate thoughts of my mind and heart? How did he know that’s what I would do differently?

“Now what I’d give for one more day with you. Cause there’s a wound here in my heart where something’s missing. And they tell me that it’s gonna heal with time”

It took barely a nanosecond before I was brought back to the last time I was with my daughter. We had a wonderful time laughing and talking as we ate lunch, wandering in and out of a few shops downtown. But then I had to go. Decision made, even though she wasn’t quite finished. A quick hug, kiss, I love you and goodbye. I always regretted what my mother used to refer to as “the bum’s rush.”

After the song finished playing I asked Alexa to play it again, on repeat. It was in the repetitive listening that a peace once again began to settle over my heart, a healing like the sweet Balm of Gilead.

As I listened to another verse, “But I know you’re in a place where all your wounds have been erased. And knowing yours are healed is healing mine.” I began to envision how my girl was no longer struggling, no longer held captive by a disease she had no control over.

“The only scars in heaven, they won’t belong to me and you
There’ll be no such thing as broken and all the old will be made new
And the thought that makes me smile now even as the tears fall down
Is that the only scars in heaven are on the hands that hold you now”

I think we all wish we could have just one more day. Always so much more to say, so much more love to share.

No matter how much time goes by I am reminded this grief journey is a lifetime sentence. It’s still chock full of tears, and unexpected moments when your heart will feel like it’s been hit by a semi. But, what I also continue to discover, even in the middle of the tears, there IS Hope During Loss! If you would hold on for just a moment, reaching out for the faith you have – even if it’s as small as a grain of a mustard seed – God will meet you where you are, wiping every tear from your eye.

For Melanie and all our loved ones:

I know the road you walked was anything but easy
You picked up your share of scars along the way
Oh, but now you’re standing in the sun, you fought your fight and your race is run
The pain is all a million miles away

The only scars in heaven, they won’t belong to me and you
There’ll be no such thing as broken and all the old will be made new
And the thought that makes me smile now even as the tears fall down
Is that the only scars in heaven are on the hands that hold you now

There’s not a day goes by that I don’t see you
You live on in all the better parts of me
Until I’m standing with you in the sun, I’ll fight this fight and this race I’ll run
Until I finally see what you can see