Blessed Peace

This morning at 8:50, we witnessed my father slip into the hands of angels as he passed away. We watched in tears as his oxygen saturation levels fell into nothing, his breathing stopped then the heart slowed and then finally stop. I believe that God ushered him into the bosom of Abraham where he will rest until God calls us all unto himself into our prepared home. That is a mouthful isn't it and much of which I do not really understand. The afterlife is still such a mystery to me. I know this though, (2 Corinthians 5:6-8 NCV) "So we always have courage. We know that while we live in this body, we are away from the Lord. {7} We live by what we believe, not by what we can see. {8} So I say that we have courage. We really want to be away from this body and be at home with the Lord." Whatever it's really like, being present with the Lord is so much more desirable than suffering for every breath! It is what we all long for. As Greg put it on the phone, it is completing a circle. We cycle through this life only to long for our maker and a real face to face relationship with Him!

I have always heard people say that it was a blessing for their loved one to go on and be with Jesus when suffering is all they had to look forward to. I have witnessed that today. I did not want to lose my dad. I desperately want to have another conversation with him. I want to see him pick at my kids and enjoy their ball games. I wish that he would be able to see Tabitha graduate this May from high school. All that being said, he has realized that for which we long. To see a graduation, to laugh in this present world of sin, even the happiest of the happy cannot be compared to the sheer bliss of being in the pure presence of God. It is something for which we long.

I am thankful for every moment I spent with my dad. I am thankful we had a close relationship. I am thankful for his pure unselfishness. I am so glad we had a last lunch memory together around two weeks ago. I have been so blessed with a dad who loved me and took care of me and spent time with me as a young man coaching my ball teams, and watching me grow up. I did not have a perfect dad in the sense that he never made a mistake. He did his fair share, but I did have a perfect father in the sense that he tried to give us a happy life in this world. He was a gentleman who loved unselfishly and I will truly miss him.

Today, as he passed on, I felt a peace that I cannot describe. I felt him stop suffering. I felt my pain leave and God's comfort become present in my inner soul. I believe that peace to be God Himself giving me the strength that many of you have prayed for our family to experience.

Please keep my mom in your prayers. On top of a mountain of pain will come challenges financially, emotionally, and just the everyday life living that she will have to do. She is strong and I know she will pull through this. It will just take time.