Hold on to Me As We Go (Song Home)

From Phillip Phillips Song “Home”

Hold on to me as we go
As we roll down this unfamiliar road
And although this wave is stringing us along…
Just know you’re not alone
‘Cause I’m gonna make this place your home

Settle down, it’ll all be clear
Don’t pay no mind to the demons
They fill you with fear
The trouble it might drag you down
If you get lost, you can always be found

Just know you’re not alone
‘Cause I’m gonna make this place your home

The first time I heard Phillip Phillips new song “Home” it brought back the memory of an incredible dream I had of my dear brother James, who we lost on September 11th.

Phillips words “Hold on to me as we go” took me right back to the place where I found myself in the dream.  A stormy sea.  There I was in the middle of a storming ocean swimming for my dear life.  Up and down I went with every hurtling wave.  Each time I came up from under the water I searched for something, anything to hold on to.  There was nothing. Just when I thought all was lost, a huge wave shot up from the water that seemed to just get higher and higher.  There he was in the distance.  James.  I saw him in rising up in that wave.  Effortlessly moving with it.  I could only see the back of his head and his arms cutting into the water. “James, James…James” I called him over and over to turn back and help me.  But he kept swimming forward.  I realized that the distance between us was getting shorter.  With every stroke James took into the waves, I was somehow moving closer to him.  Closer and closer we got until finally I was within his reach…I stretched out my arms and circled my arm around his neck and rested my forehead against the back of his head.   I held him tightly knowing that he would keep me safe.  After a few moments, I noticed that his head was turning back to look at me.  Finally I would see his face.  But it wasn’t James I was holding on to any longer.  It was my brother Michael who I had been holding all the time.

Days before this dream we had an argument.  We weren’t talking for a few days. In my prayers, I asked James for help to bring us together.  And through my dream, James did.  He led me back to Michael through the storm — to an embrace of love and we made peace soon after.

There is no doubt that my dream connected me to James in a blessed way.  It let me know he was very much with me and heard my prayers. I believe with all my heart that those we lose in this life never leave us.  Our Lord said that they become “like the angels.”  He said, I go to make a place for you, so that where I am, you may be also.

They are there with our Lord – in the center of his glory.

Never far from hearing the words we whisper to them in prayer.