the happy thomas family

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates
wearing beautifully, tailored clothes,
my hair expertly coiffed,
and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails.
I want to drive up in a station wagon
that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.
I want to be there
with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt
from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children.
I want to be there
with a little dirt under my fingernails
from helping to weed someone's garden.
I want to be there
with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks
and the tears of a friend on my shoulder.
I want the Lord to know
I was really here
and that I really lived."

[ Marjorie Pay Hinckley ]