Closer to Home

This is a lovely place that is hard to leave
And there’s a loneliness we will always grieve.
So you give what you can, only take what you need,
And hope your heart will know what your eyes can’t see.

When I was a child, I thought like a child,
And I still feel like a child sometimes.
And I’m learning the farthest I will travel each day
Is to the edge of my blindness… then a little more ways.

We will meet again I’m sure,
Someday when our sorrows are cured.
And we’ll walk like friends, embrace again,
Much closer to home we’ll be then.

But the world will build walls without any doors
And it’s easy to forget what we are climbing for.
But I saw an angel with hope on its face saying,
“There’s good work to do, and no time to waste.”

We will meet again I’m sure,
Someday when our sorrows are cured.
And we’ll walk like friends, embrace again,
Much closer to home we’ll be then.

I felt your soul in my fingertips
And I have held your hand and brushed them to my lips.
And I saw the child that I birthed in my pain,
And when she opened her eyes there were your eyes again.

We will meet again I’m sure,
Someday when our sorrows are cured.
And we’ll walk like friends, embrace again,
Much closer to home we’ll be then.

–Carrie Newcomer

I couldn’t travel home to my father’s funeral, so my seminary friends helped me plan a memorial service in his honor. We gathered at the table. This song was played. Two weeks later, my daughter was born.