When I Wake Up There
When I wake up in the Land of Glory
and with the saints I will tell my story
there will be one name that I proclaim:
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, just that name!
— “The Only Name” by Big Daddy Weave
Mike Rose (where are you?!), a friend from long ago, liked to change one word in a song: from When we all get to heaven to If we all get to heaven.
I think of him and that line almost every time we play “The Only Name” in The Rivers of Life Clergy Band. (Have I mentioned that we’re in our 11th year together? Have you booked us yet to come to your place?)
When we get to the part of the song that says, When I wake up in the Land of Glory, I flash from When to If, and a nanosecond of panic sets in: If I wake up in the Land of Glory.
Then another thing hits, quicker and stronger: You are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift. (Ephesians 2:8)
In this instance, the Giver is also the Gift: Christ.
Or, as the song says, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
We’ll know more about all of that When we all get to heaven.
And what a day of rejoicing that will be —-
When I wake up in the Land of Glory
and with the saints I will tell my story
there will be one name that I proclaim:
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, just that name!