May 5, 2008

Read “Jesus, The King”.  Dad is there now worshipping at the feet of his Savior.

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My Dad passed away today.  Fifty days after his 75th birthday, as the rest of the world was beginning just another week, my Dad suffered a heart attack and passed out of this world and into the next.

My brother and I, along with the many who knew him, loved him and were profoundly impacted by his life, are saddened by the loss, but we cannot mourn this death. Mourning is not an appropriate emotion in this case for, if it were true of anyone, my Dad’s absence from the body and from our presence equates to his being in the presence of his Lord and Savior.

I miss him.  I will miss our conversations.  He tended to talk more than he listened for his hearing was not what it used to be.  He loved to talk about the state of the world and the signs of the Second Coming.  Phone calls could stretch into marathons as he mentioned one after another for whom he prayed as he strolled through the quietness of the cemetary near his home.

But he had the unique ability to make you laugh uncontrollably and turn right around and tug on your heart-strings until the tears flowed.  He was many things in his life – son, brother, Marine, college student, husband, father, grandpop, preacher – but, above all else – eclipsing every other role in his life – his was a man after God’s heart.  He was a  prayer warrior.  The prayer lists that were found as my brother and I looked through his home boggled the mind.  He loved God and he loved what God loved…..people.

He would recount story after story of conversations with store clerks and restaurant employees.  He would make them laugh, get them talking and then inquire of their soul’s condition.  He had a talent given by God.  He had a winsomeness that drew others to him and he used that to point them to Christ.

I will miss him.  I do miss him.  But I will see him again.  He is there waiting.  He is vital and strong again, having shaken off this mortal mantle.  He is in ecstacy.  He is in the presence of the One Who saved him, called him, delivered him and sustained him throughout his life.

He is in Heaven.