A Sad Anniversary But A Happy Eternity

Yesterday was the 9th anniversary of my father's death. Over this last week every time I looked at the calendar and saw the date, August 20, I thought about my dad. I wasn't there when he left this world. The last time I saw him was about a month earlier. I had moved to Kentucky in March but went back to see him in July 1999.

It's hard for me to write about my dad in the little space that this blog allows us. Although I know I have written long posts about much less important things. What I will say is that I miss him very very much. So many times in the last 9 years I have done things or gone places and wished he was there to share it with me. Going to see the Grand Ole Opry, watching the Magic Kingdom fireworks and seeing the show at the Muppets 3D attraction at Disney World are the first ones that come to mind. There are so many times over the last 9 years I have thought to myself "I wish Dad were here to see this. He would have loved it." The feelings that accompanied those thoughts while seemingly a sadness for him was actually a continuation of my personal grief . I continue to remember my father as he was when he was here with us.

However as a Christian I must continue to think of my father as he is now still alive and in heaven. You see, I believe, that given the choice, my dad really wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else over the last 9 years than where he's been. When he took his last breath of this life he immediately found himself in the presence of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Dad lived his life for and in service to God. He found salvation through Jesus Christ. He believed every word written in the Bible and lived his life according to God's commands. When his time in this world was over he found himself, as the Bible says, "absent from the body but present with the Lord" (2nd Corinthians 5:8). At that very moment he changed forever. No longer is he concerned with or does he take pleasures in the things of the world. He is, so complete and blessed to be in the presence of God that nothing in this world compares to it.

While I'm certain that the love he felt for his wife, children, and family is still alive and well within him the frivolous desires for the pleasures of this world are permanently dismissed from his soul. He doesn't care about any thing in this world any longer. He is perfectly happy where he is now and cannot wait until all of those he loves to have their salvation completed by making the journey into the presence of The Lord just as he has. The same thing is true for my mom, my niece Teressa and any other born again Christian who has left this world.

So once again when I feel sadness as I miss my father it is only my sadness for myself. I know he is complete in his salvation and awaiting the creation of the new heaven and the new earth so he can spend eternity with God and his saviour Jesus Christ. How do I know all this? The Bible tells me so. My belief in the scriptures comes from the faith I was introduced to as a child and have returned to as an adult. The two people most responsible for teaching me in that faith are my parents. Thanks Dad.