With Hope

This morning after dreaming of my Grandma, I woke up with the chorus Steven Curtis Chapman song, "With Hope" stuck in my head.

It first came to mind a few weeks ago when I learned she was diagnosed with ALS.

Again it echoed in my brain, so I looked up the song to listen to in its entirety.

The song begins with the sweet little voice of a young girl singing "Jesus Loves Me."  Then I remembered Steven Curtis Chapman's daughter died in 2008 after being run over in the driveway by a family member.  He recorded the song in 1999, 9 years earlier.

As I listened to the lyrics, tears filled my eyes.  Gratitude that my little girl survived her own driveway accident, grief for my second little baby who I will always miss, and the poignancy of the joyful hope of heaven Mr. Chapman and I share.

You can listen to the song here, or read the lyrics below:

This is not at all how
We thought it was supposed to be
We had so many plans for you
We had so many dreams
And now you've gone away
And left us with the memories of your smile
And nothing we can say
And nothing we can do
Can take away the pain
The pain of losing you, but ...

CHORUS:
We can cry with hope
We can say goodbye with hope
'Cause we know our goodbye is not the end, oh no
And we can grieve with hope
'Cause we believe with hope
(There's a place by God's grace)
There's a place where we'll see your face again
We'll see your face again

And never have I known
Anything so hard to understand
And never have I questioned more
The wisdom of God's plan
But through the cloud of tears
I see the Father's smile and say well done
And I imagine you
Where you wanted most to be
Seeing all your dreams come true
'Cause now you're home
And now you're free, and ...
(CHORUS)

We have this hope as an anchor
'Cause we believe that everything
God promised us is true, so ...
(CHORUS)

We wait with hope
And we ache with hope
We hold on with hope
We let go with hope