Dear Tim

Dear Tim,

You have been such an influence in my life. Your unending love and joy for the Lord has been such a model for who I want to be.  You truly were a man after God's own heart. I can't thank you enough for the impact that you have had on my life.  Every time I was around you I was convicted of my own walk with Jesus. You invoked a want to be fully surrendered to God's will.  Even in the trials that you faced, you trusted that God's plan was perfect.

I thank God every day for the chance that I had to know you. You were such a good friend to me and that is something that I will hold onto forever.  You were a person that was very easy to talk to because all you wanted to talk about was Jesus.  Your testimony about how you got saved will be told over and over again.  I look forward to the day when I will see you again.

Since I found out that you were no longer with us a song has been continually going through my head. The verse and the chorus go like this.

"I hear Your voice and I catch my breath.
'Well done my child. Enter in and rest.'
Tears of joy run down my cheeks
It's beautiful beyond my wildest dreams.

I want to run on greener pastures
I want to dance on higher hills
I want to drink from sweeter waters
In the misty morning chill
And my soul is getting restless
For the place where I belong
I can't wait to join the angels and sing
My Heaven Song"

 ~ Phil Wickham - Heaven Song

You are now singing and dancing with Jesus Tim. You have been waiting and longing to sing your heaven song. I am so glad that you are in the presence of God and I am very envious as well. I long for that day but you no longer have to. Your soul is no longer restless. You are home.

Love you so much Tim and I will miss you dearly; as will everyone else who had the privilege of knowing you.

"I tell you this brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nr does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on the immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

"Death is swallowed up in victory."
"O death, where is your victory?"
"O death, where is your sting?"

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

1 Corinthians 15:50-57 (ESV)

Thanks be to God that death has been beaten and the grave has been conquered.