photo #8731766

Twenty-six year old Jim Moore was coming back to his hometown in Georgia. He’d been away for years, first, working to earn enough money to go to college, then getting an education. Now he was to preach for the folks in his family’s little Baptist church. Jim’s father had directed the choir and led the singing in the church for many years. Now it was quite a thrill for him to do so before his own son was to speak. But the thing that struck Jim Moore the most, as he gazed out over the congregation, was how different it was. The years had brought many changes. Some folks had died, others had moved away. Those that remained had grown older. Even Jim’s nine brothers and sisters had grown up since he’d been away. C. R. Moore, Jim’s father, was reputed to be one of the finest gospel singers in Georgia. He had been trained by Anthony Showalter, a vocal music teacher and hymn writer (the author of Leaning on the Everlasting Arms). But Jim was struck by how the voice of the elder Moore had deteriorated. “I felt sorry for him,” he said. “He would lose his pitch and his voice would break.” When the young man returned to graduate school, he thought about the inevitability of change, and of how age brings a loss of health, mobility, and various abilities. After returning to school, Moore produced the hymn and dedicated his song as: "Dedicated to My Father and Mother." The song was not published until around 1930. This turned his attention to what the Bible says about heaven, and how sickness and death will be forever behind us. Not that there will be no passing of time in the heavenly kingdom. Eternity is not timeless, but consists of endless time. However, the infirmities and other problems of aging will be no more. I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” Rev. 21:3-5 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent [our body], is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven….For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. II Cor. 5:1-4 So when this corruptible [what is perishable] has put on incorruption [that which is imperishable], and this mortal [what is subject to dying and death] has put on immortality [that which is not subject to dying and death], then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” I Cor. 15:54