Songfacts®:

• This country/CCM track has Paisley imagining the afterlife "on the far side of the sky," where he will meet his lost loved ones and "shed the sins and struggles I have carried all these years." Songwriter Rivers Rutherford used a memory from his childhood as the basis for the song, specifically the lyrics "I'm gonna land beside a lion, and run my fingers through his mane."
  
  He told Rolling Stone: "When I was about ten years old, I was sick one Sunday so my dad and I stayed home from church and watched the preacher on TV. And in the middle of his sermon, this guy comes out in a karate outfit and attacks the preacher. Once they got the guy under control, the preacher got back up and said, 'I wouldn't worry for a minute. I know where I'm going, and I can't wait to get there. The Bible says that the lion will lay down with the lamb. Can you imagine what it would be like to lay down with a lion and run your fingers through its mane?' Something about that image just stuck in my head, and 25 years later I remembered that sermon when I was writing with George Teren."
• Dolly Parton is a guest vocalist and also appears in the music video. Directed by Jim Shea, the clip features home videos of Paisley and his late grandfather, as well as several cameos from others holding photos of their loved ones. Cameos include Michael Reagan, son of Ronald Reagan; Teresa Earnhardt, wife of Dale Earnhardt; figure skater Scott Hamilton; John Carter Cash, son of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash; and Pixar director John Lasseter. Parton holds a photo of her grandfather, the Rev. Jake Owens.
• In 2007, the video was dedicated to victims of the Virginia Tech massacre. On April 16, 2007, a senior student at the school shot and killed 32 people, and wounded several others.
• This was Dolly Parton's 25th #1 hit on the country chart and Brad Paisley's fifth.
• This was nominated for a Dove Award for Country Recorded Song of the Year in 2006 but lost to Carrie Underwood's "Jesus, Take The Wheel."
• Christian artist Geoff Moore did a hit cover in 2007, which landed at #14 on the Hot Christian Songs chart and at #13 on the Hot Christian Adult Contemporary chart. It was also covered by CCM trio 33Miles that same year, and by Susie McEntire for her 2010 album, Passages.