Veil

The first time I ever heard anyone talk about a veil in a religious sense was my Aunt Effie telling me about when her son Jackie died. Jackie died in 1952. He was 24 years old. Just before he died he said to his parents "I can see beyond the veil"and then he was gone.

On the other end of life there is a veil called the "veil of forgetfulness". It is best described in William Wordsworth's poem "Ode: Intimations of Immortality".

Our birth is but a sleeping and a forgetting

The soul that rises with us, our Life's Star,

Hath had elsewhere its setting

And cometh from afar;

Not in entire forgetfulness,

And not in utter nakedness,

But trailing clouds of glory do we come

From God, who is our home. 

Likewise we should be able to say "Our death is but an awakening and a remembering”.

That is the part we can't capture as we passed through all the veil of the temple. We can imagine the the joyful reunions with family and loved ones because we experienced that in the celestial room.

It is the remembering we can't do now but one day we shall. And we will know the Lord's embrace, as we are welcomed home.

All my life I have talked to Father through a veil.

I knew He was listening.

Often He felt so close.

Sometimes the power of His presence

filled me with a warmth that permeated my soul.

But always He was hidden by the veil

we call forgetfulness. 

I never did see Him but I always returned,

My need and longing for Father brought me back

Over and over again,

As it will always do

Until at last He puts forth

His hand and welcomes me home.