Gone To The Place That's Best

It has been three years since I posted in this blog, but Duane is never far from my mind, even though today it's fifteen years since he left us.  Friends talk about things that remind them of their departed loved ones, and about receiving messages from them through things like red cardinals or butterflies.  For me, the most poignant reminder is the song by Normal Greenbaum,”Spirit in the Sky.”  It's a song that Duane really liked, and maybe “poignant” isn’t the right word, since that means “evoking a keen sense of sadness or regret.”  But one of the synonyms is “touching.”  This song touches me in my heart.  It makes me think of him.

At least one time when “Spirit in the Sky” came on the radio, Mike changed the station.  I guess for him, it is a mournful, miserable, distressing reminder.  But recently I told him that when it comes on, for me, it’s Duane saying, “Hi Mom, I’m well, I’m happy, I’m fulfilled - remember, I’m in the place that’s best.”  So Mike doesn’t change the station any more.  I am thankful. I listen to every word with him in mind. 

Spirit in the Sky, Norman Greenbaum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZQxH_8raCI

When I die and

They lay me to rest
Gonna go to the place
That's the best
When I lay me down to die
Goin' up to the spirit in the sky

Goin' up to the spirit in the sky
That's where I'm gonna go
When I die
When I die and they
Lay me to rest
I'm gonna go to the place
That's the best

Prepare yourself
You know it's a must
Gotta have a friend in Jesus
So you know that
When you die
You're gonna go to
The spirit in the sky

Gonna go to the spirit in the sky
That's where you're gonna go
When you die
When you die and
They lay you to rest
You're gonna go to
The place that's the best

Never been a sinner
He never sinned
I got a friend in Jesus
So you know that
When I die
He's gonna set me up
With the spirit in the sky

Set me up with
The spirit in the sky
That's where I'm gonna
Go when I die
When I die and they
Lay me to rest
I'm gonna go to the place
That's the best
I'm gonna go to the place
That's the best
I'm gonna go to the place
That's the best

Songwriters: NORMAN GREENBAUM
© Warner/Chappell Music, Inc

Although these lyrics that I found include the words "Never been a sinner, He never sinned," the actual words in that one verse said, “Never been a sinner, I never sinned... I got a friend in Jesus.”  I used to think that was the one thing that really wasn’t “doctrinally sound” in the song (not that it was ever intended to be a “Christian” song).  But God recently gave me a different outlook, a new thought, on that statement.  Once we have believed in Jesus and trusted Him for our salvation because of His death, burial and resurrection in our place, received that free gift, then Father God actually looks at us “through the blood of Jesus.”  He sees us just as if we had never sinned.  He removes our sin as far as the east is from the west.  In Christ, it is just as if “I’ve never been a sinner, never sinned... I got a friend in Jesus.”  We should really let that soak in.  He sees us as perfect once we have repented of our sins.  So now I can listen to that song, every word of it, as a message from Duane.

And to Duane, I'd like to tell him that I’m still sorry that I didn’t play Spirit in the Sky at his funeral.  I know it’s the song he would have chosen.  But at least I put a line from it on his bench.  Right across the front of it are engraved the words, "When I die and they lay me to rest, gonna go to the place that's the best."

Duane, I’m so glad I know you had prepared yourself, and you had a friend in Jesus.  You didn’t die; you’re more alive than ever.  As Billy Graham would say, you just changed your address.  You went to the place that's best.  

Farther than from a sunrise to a sunset—
    that’s how far you’ve removed our guilt from us.

Psalm 103:12, The Passion Translation

"...for we all have sinned and are in need of the glory of God.  Yet through his powerful declaration of acquittal, God freely gives away his righteousness.  His gift of love and favor now cascades over us, all because Jesus, the Anointed One, has liberated us from the guilt, punishment, and power of sin!

Romans 3:23-24, TPT