Can I Be With You?

 Can I Be With You?
  Rich Mullins, Justin Peters

Everybody each and all
We're gonna die eventually
It's no more or less our faults
Than it is our destiny
So now Lord I come to you
Asking only for Your grace
You know what I've put myself through
All those empty dreams I chased

And when my body lies in the ruins
Of the lies that nearly ruined me
Will You pick up the pieces
That were pure and true
And breathe Your life into them
And set them free?

And when You start this world over
Again from scratch
Will You make me anew
Out of the stuff that lasts?
Stuff that's purer than gold is
And clearer than glass could ever be
Can I be with You?
Can I be with You?

And everybody all and each
From the day that we are born
We have to learn to walk beneath
Those mercies by which we're drawn
And now we wrestle in the dark
With these angels that we can't see
We will move on although with scars
Oh Lord, move inside of me

And when my body lies in the ruins
Of the lies that nearly ruined me
Will You pick up the pieces
That were pure and true
And breathe Your life into them
And set them free?

And when You blast this cosmos
To kingdom come
When those jagged-edged mountains
I love are gone
When the sky is crossed with the tears
Of a thousand falling suns
As they crash into the sea
Can I be with you?
Can I be with you?

Rich Mullins and Keith Green are undoubtedly my favorite musicians. Both of them had a unique power in their lyrical ability as well as their delivery musically. I was listening to this song a few days ago as I was shuttling my children somewhere. Something about the chorus of this song hits me every time I hear it. The heartfelt and very simple cry made to the Father, "Can I be with you?" cuts right to the heart of who we are as believers. I want to believe that in the end when all is made new that I will have the opportunity to just be with Him. I don't even care what that means, don't care what will be on the agenda, don't care if I will be able to have any one-on-one time. I just want to be with Him. Just to be nearby, to know as I am known, and to rest in the peace that all the trial is over, the sin is destroyed, and my Father has become "all in all" (1 Cor. 15:28).

Oftentimes my children express this very same thing. They just want to be near me. They want to see what I am doing, go where I am going, or just sit near me as I read a book. I don't get it. I am with myself all the time and I often get weary of who I am. But they think it is fun to be near me. As they grow and change in their desire to simply be near me, I pray their heart will resonate with mine in their desire to just be with their father in heaven.