Here She Comes!

On the Horizon - Katharine Micks

This week I had the privilege of serving as organist for the funeral of a new friend, Eleanor Dunn. I never met her until the day of her memorial service. At age 99, her life story was rich and so compelling. I found myself wiping away tears over someone so joyful, so full of Christ, who touched everyone she met with beauty and meaningful conversation. I wished with all my heart that I had known her.

Mrs. Dunn, happily married for many years, lived more than a decade after her husband’s death. She selected the following poem to include on the last page of the printed Order of Worship for her own funeral. 

Dr. Mel Wines read this poem with depth of feeling at the end of his sermon. He had spent many hours visiting this dear parishioner. The friendship that developed shone in his reading. She always refreshed him more than she did him, or so he said, even praying for him every visit after he prayed for her. What a lovely, faith-filled practice.

Written by American clergyman Henry Van Dyke for his wife, these lines are a beautiful picture of the Christian’s transition from the edge of earth's shore to heaven’s welcoming port . . .

Gone From My Sight 

by Henry van Dyke

I am standing upon the seashore.

A ship, at my side,

spreads her white sails

to the moving breeze

and starts for the blue ocean.

She is an object of beauty and strength.

I stand and watch her until,

at length, she hangs like a speck

of white cloud just where the sea and sky

come to mingle with each other.

Then, someone at my side says,

"There, she is gone."

Gone where?

Gone from my sight. That is all.

She is just as large in mast,

hull and spar as she was when she left my side.

And, she is just as able to bear

her load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me – not in her.

And, just at the moment

when someone says,

"There, she is gone,"

there are other eyes watching her coming,

and other voices ready to take up

the glad shout,

"Here she comes!"

And that is dying...

Isn't that so beautiful? "Here she comes!" "Here she comes!" Wow. I look forward to hearing that someday, don't you? 

May the God of peace . . .  preserve us whole and entire, spirit, soul, and body, irreproachable at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 
(I Thessalonians 5:23) 

Photo by Katharine Micks

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MUSIC LINKS

The Call (Come, My Way, My Truth, My Life) - Ralph Vaughan Williams

Shall We Gather at the River - Copland's setting, sung by Marilyn Horne

Going Home - sung by Bryn Terfel

How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place - Johannes Brahms (sung in English)

Pilgrim's Hymn - Stephen Paulus 

The Road Home - Stephen Paulus

I Shall Know Him - new setting of Fanny Crosby's text by Ben Everson