Today, 10 years ago, my father passed away. He was 41 years old.
He had battled a Glioblastoma brain tumor for 18 months. I am forever thankful that our whole family was together by his side as He went to be with Jesus.
I am thankful for a loving father who was present in my life for 15 years, something that so many have never experienced.
I am thankful for my mom who gave us a wonderful example of trusting in and clinging to God even through the hardest times in life.
I am thankful that by God's grace and with our mother's love, all my siblings continue to pursue Jesus and healing.
This year, my dad's first grandson will be born. (Congrats Mitch and Emily!)
At every milestone we ask ourselves what Dad would say if he were here, or what it would be like...at every milestone we grieve a little more and heal a little more...
I share a poem with you today that I wrote just before my mom remarried five years ago.
The Now that Slips Away
A quaint, white house and big red barn,
It seems like yesterday
That climbing up the cherry tree
I watched my sister play.
The sun and rain, our flooded creek,
Waking from dreams at dawn,
The days of carefree, childish play
That now have gone.
Adobe brick and stucco walls
Saguaros towering tall
The mountains rising from the brush
Across the border wall.
The two, sweet years in Mexico
Seemed then a lifetime long
But looking back, a puff of smoke,
An era, gone.
Have five years truly passed me by
Since Father’s face I’ve seen?
It once was “now” that is the past
When I was but a teen.
When folding laundry late one night,
I asked myself how soon
I’d know the reality of death.
Late day of June.
Now driving north to see a friend.
Now coming home again.
Now packing up for a new place.
Now unpacking therein.
In one “now” I am planning it.
The next, the curtain’s drawn.
I find each “now” hardly arrives
Before it’s gone.
A thousand years in Jesus’ sight
Are but a stroke of time
Upon eternity’s great clock
Whose hands e’er upward climb.
A nighttime watch, with sleepy eyes,
Each blink, a year has past
So soon the quiet, waiting ends
With day at last.
We look forward to that eternal day when the tears will be wiped from our eyes and we will be together with Jesus forever!
