“Home Free” by Wayne Watson

I’m trying hard not to think you unkind
But Heavenly Father
If you know my heart
Surely you can read my mind
Good people underneath the sea of grief
Some get up and walk away
Some will find ultimate relief

Home Free, eventually
At the ultimate healing we will be Home Free
Home Free, oh I’ve got a feeling
At the ultimate healing
We will be Home Free

Out in the corridors we pray for life
A mother for her baby, A husband for his wife
Sometimes the good die young
It’s sad but true
And while we pray for one more heartbeat
The real comfort is with you

You know pain has little mercy
And suffering’s no respecter of age, of race or position
I know every prayer gets answered
But the hardest one to pray is slow to come
Oh Lord, not mine, but Thy will be done
Let it be…

Home Free, eventually
At the ultimate healing gonna be Home Free
Home Free, oh its more than a feeling
At the ultimate healing
Gonna be Home Free

Songwriters: Bernard Sumner / Gillian Lesley Gilbert / Peter Hook / Stephen Paul David Morris

Dear God, I think I first heard this song around 1992 or 1993. I was a sales rep for Word, the label for Wayne Watson at the time, and I remember being really struck by the words to this song. Now, 26-ish years later, I know it word for word. The amazing thing is how little death I have experienced from my family of origin. At 49, on my side of the family, I haven’t lost anyone beyond grandparents. My parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins are all still living. But I have watched my wife and her family suffer terrible and tragic losses. The hardest for her was her mother, but she only has one biological aunt remaining, having lost three uncles. Two of her cousins have lost children in horrible accidents. Tragic.

Then there are times when I read a Facebook post like this morning’s from a distant high school friend who lost her mother yesterday. She has simply posted this meme.

I know that’s so true after walking that path with my wife nine years ago–and even still today. So this prayer is for this high school friend, my wife, and everyone else I know who has experienced loss like this recently, including my friend who, last week, discovered his adult daughter, who had died overnight, and the other friend who lost her adult son in a car accident just last week.

Father, you are our ultimate comfort and hope. Help us to know what that means. Help my friends and my wife to discover that hope in a new way. Reveal to us your truth. And let us not forget that it’s okay for us to suffer in loss through death. Jesus suffered too when friends died. Something within us builds around them, and when they are removed it’s just huge. And obviously there’s nothing worse than a child or a parent dying, followed closely I would imagine by spouses and then siblings. Regardless, for these friends and my wife, please comfort them. Help them to just sink into your arms. They will mourn. They will be devastated. Help them to know that it’s okay. They don’t have to rationalize it. They don’t even have to try to convince themselves of the truth of this son so that they will “feel better.” Be their God. Help them to find their comfort in you through others around them.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen