My Dear Son

   

My Dear Son,

                        I have no greater wisdom to leave you than that which is written in this Holy Book.  Although you may never have had the chance to know me, know this…

Your father loves you and loves your mom and loves the LORD.  Study these pages to know the LORD and you shall know my heart for it has been my supreme desire to be like Him.  Know Him and you shall know Eternal Life, obey Him and you shall know peace and contentment; anticipate His coming and you shall know joy (I will meet you in the clouds – 1 Thess. 4:17); Follow Him and you will be a leader- leading others to saving intimate knowledge of Jesus Christ.  Do this and your reward in heaven shall be great- you will shine as bright as the stars in heaven with the reflection of God’s glory.

                                                                                    See you there,

                                                                                    Love, Dad

I don’t remember what prompted me to write this note to my son in the front page of my Bible some twelve years ago.  He was our only child at the time.  I probably had some aches and pains associated with an eating disorder that I had when I was a teenager; actually I think it was a nervous disorder that affected my eating but let’s not get technical.  Thank God that the “peace of God that passes all understanding” delivered me from that anxious mess.

My father’s father died at the very young age of twenty-seven; my dad was just a toddling around himself when it happened.  My grandfather was clubbed on the head in a bar brawl that caused the clot that killed him.  That’s another story altogether but I think that hearing about his untimely and unnecessary death made such an impression on me that it turned me into a hypochondriac.  To this day I can’t have unexplainable aches and pains without thinking that perhaps my time has come.

            Now it’s not that I don’t trust in the goodness of God; I do.  But I’m a realist and I recognize the sovereignty of God also.  It is my understanding that He, as God, can do with us, His creation, as He sees fit.  If that includes transporting me to an existence in a realm where pain, and sorrow, and separation shall be no more, than it is His prerogative to do so.  It’s His alone.

            As I said, I don’t remember what prompted me to write the note.  I think that I thought I was dying.  I used to foolishly pray things like “Let me just finish this project Lord, then You can….” Or “Let this and this happen first Lord, then You can take me….”  As though He needed my permission.  How silly of me to pray thus when I could have earlier learned the joy of casting all my cares on Him and praying for others.

            Later after our 1^st daughter was born I had to change the heading to address both of the kids.  Now, as I pulled my old worn Bible out of the dust (I have a new one now), as I pulled it out to copy what I wrote there to this Blog I realized that I now have to change it again to address all my dear children.  I enjoy each day that I have with them and don’t take a single one for granted.  I don’t take them for granted and I don’t take the days for granted.  I strive to be the type of dad who lives each day I have with them to the fullest.  Some days I do better at this than others, some days are woefully wasted but I strive for their sakes to do better.  As far as I know I am perfectly healthy and while I don’t really know how many days I have remaining, none of us do, I am thankful for today.

In all the things that I wrote to my children, I think I wanted to convey the very simple principle that “He must increase and WE must decrease.” By seeing to this, there is joy unspeakable and full of glory and there is peace that passes all understanding.