Tag Archives: heaven

Looking for You

03 Saturday Jul 2021

Posted by in grief, Reflections

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Valentine’s Day 2011

I’m told you’re looking down on me from above,
but I don’t believe it.
I don’t want you looking down on me
from some lofty perch.
You never did that in life,
so why would you start now?
It’s odd to even think about you
hovering over me –
how high I’m not told –
viewing my life as a spectator,
watching me move from here to there,
seeing me make my mistakes
and not being able to prevent them, 
having little to do with me really,
other than to observe my days
and pray for the best.

In life,
this life,
you were always by my side
and I felt your deep presence.
You were my sanctuary – 
where love flourished,
where healing occurred,
where life was restored each day,
where hope never died.

On this side of the veil
I still look for you
in this sacred meeting place
where egos fall away
and love
without conditions
abides.

You don’t look down on me from above.
You look
as you always have,
into my eyes,
with a tenderness
too deep for words.
You draw me out
and love me,
unreservedly,
truthfully,
and that is a gift
that can only be given
from the inside.

Mark Lloyd Richardson
July 3, 2021

Sadie’s Dream

23 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by in Poems

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Thank you to all who have visited my blog in the last week and shared your thoughts either here, on Facebook, or through other means. We are blessed with many friends, both near and far away, who have gone out of their way to offer gentle comforting words to us.

Dallis and I have been taking lots of walks together, checking in regularly with each other during the day, and sharing how we feel about this suddenly quieter life. We laugh and we cry as we remember all the little ways that our Sadie became such a big presence in our lives.

I write poems, not so much for publication as to have an outlet for creative expression. Most of my poems remain in a file on my computer’s hard drive labeled “Poems in Process” ~ it’s a kind of purgatory where they go while they get their acts together and decide whether or not to behave themselves.

Anyway, I started writing a poem about Sadie last October and it landed in poem purgatory with all the rest. However, I pulled it out a few days ago and started playing with it. Here it is, along with a couple of Dal’s many beautiful photos of our little girl.

The poem is called simply “Sadie’s Dream,” at least as I imagine it!

Stretched out by a pillow on our bed ~

        eyes shut     ears alert     heart quickening

               your little legs begin to move ~

                           like those times you are set loose

                                                                                       and you run

        through newly mown grass

                                                         chasing the wind

                                                                                             getting lost           in the sky

and then

               the big finale ~

                  rolling this way then that

                           carefree       doglike

                           one of your own treasured kind

Romping through your private field of dreams

               a smile rises

                     a sly contented smile

Sadie girl ~ how I love seeing you dream happiness

In the mail the other day we received a children’s book from a dear friend titled DOG HEAVEN, written and illustrated by Cynthia Rylant. When we opened it up to the very first page, a smile (a sly one at that) came to my face as we read, “When dogs go to Heaven, they don’t need wings because God knows that dogs love running best.” We learned as we continued to read that God gives dogs “fields and fields and fields” in which to run.

Sadie didn’t have far to go to get to heaven.

She closed her eyes, and there she was!

(Thank you to my beautiful wife Dallis for taking so many wonderfully expressive photos of Sadie, who by the way was not in love with cameras.)

(If you enjoy reading my blog, you might consider “sharing” it or “liking” it or maybe even “following” it. Thanks for reading, until next time.)

Where nothing’s broken and no one’s missing!

14 Saturday Jan 2012

Posted by in Uncategorized

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I’ve been thinking about Core Values recently as I prepare a four week sermon series on the topic for the church I serve.

It can be a challenge to identify the Core Values of a group of people like a congregation, because people bring their own hierarchy of individual values into community with them. Still, every effective group or organization has Core Values that can be clearly identified by observing what they do. Think Sierra Club or the United States Army and you have a good idea of who they are and what values guide them based on what they do.

Likewise, every effective Christian congregation has clear Core Values that keep us on the same page as we seek to be the people God needs us to be for the sake of the world.

Even if you don’t belong to a church or believe in the church, I hope you’ll bear with me as I share why Core Values are important.

Core Values are like guiding principles that never change. As a child I learned the importance of telling the truth. When I was caught in a lie, I soon understood that I had betrayed the Core Values of my family. It wasn’t even spoken. I just knew, and that “knowing” and those “feelings” were punishment enough for me to think twice the next time I thought I could do an end run around the truth.

Core Values are like DNA – they identify what is unique about you and tell the story of who you are. Each person has a story and each church has a story.

Sometimes there are portions of our story we would rather not tell, because they are not as positive as the rest of the story. I served a church once that was approaching a significant anniversary and a member was asked to compose a history booklet. When he brought me the final draft to review, I noticed that it mentioned an episode in the life of the church that had been divisive and painful. Even as I said out loud to him, “Does this have to be in here?” I knew he was right to include it as part of our story. Even seemingly negative details shine a light on what the real Core Values are.

Before I go on too long and lose you, let me say that people have generally understood the Christian faith to be a matter of professing a set of beliefs in the teachings of Jesus Christ. But Christianity is so much more than a belief system. Beliefs only take people so far and then they crumble under the weight of human experience – the sorrows, disappointments, and heartaches of this shared human life.

To be Christian is primarily to be a follower of Jesus – that is, to have Jesus guide you in the way that leads to deeper trust in God and deeper compassion for your neighbor (and yourself). This is about movement, about action, about choosing to align your life with God’s Realm of blessing and life. It goes beyond mere belief to a place of growing trust in the goodness and grace of God.

When Jesus was asked which commandment is the greatest, he answered, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 22:36-39).

Jesus’ way is the way of love!

Love God, love your neighbor, love yourself!

Following Jesus, being a disciple of Jesus, means learning to love with the same kind of reckless abandon as Jesus did, who ate with prostitutes, tax collectors, and a variety of other sinners – maybe even wealthy politicians!

“We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven,” according to Bishop Desmond Tutu. “God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low.”

If heaven is not some distant destination in the future but rather the Realm where love reigns, then it is a reality toward which we dream and pray and act in this life.

Someone has said that heaven is where there is room for all God’s children at the table, a place where nothing’s broken and no one’s missing!

Heaven is the Realm where love of God and neighbor and self flow together in healing, restorative and life-giving ways! We get glimpses of it in this life if we have eyes to see.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. saw glimpses of it. He had eyes to see a world where love would conquer indifference, cruelty and hate. He had the strength to persevere in the long, hard work of justice and peace because he knew that in the Realm of God’s love the table is spread and all people are welcome. Dr. King once said, “Human progress … comes through the tireless efforts of those willing to be co-workers with God.”

I intend to start with this extravagant God-inspired servant love as I consider the Core Values of the Christian community I serve, and God only knows where it will lead!