My Father

Anniversary dates have their way of causing you to look back.

January 14 is one of those dates.

I don’t often like to look back on things that are gone. I’m not one to perseverate.  But, I almost always work to schedule it in on anniversary dates, because I also don’t want to forget.

This was the date of my father’s last day.

I think back to Mom standing beside his hospital bed in those last moments and repositioning his pillow.  One of the last things she would have ever done for him.  She noticed lent and couldn’t let it stay.  She tucked him in a little tighter under his sheets.  She knew he’d be cold.  His later years brought him constant cold.  I couldn’t help but pay attention to his five foot nothing frame underneath his bedding and thought what a giant this man was. My father’s presence was larger than life.

Mom removed a latex glove to swipe his hair across his forehead with her fingertips. He knew this touch.  I imagined even needing it.  She didn’t say anything as she repeated this motion.  I knew her mind was occupied.  I suspect it was replaying the sixty-six years of marital memories that was coming to its end. Likely those memories only the two of them shared.  Likely those no one else need know.

I can’t help but think back to my father’s life that now feels so heroic.  A man who used his years so nobly to guard his children. His prudent protections spared us from childhood tragedies. His shrewd safekeeping spared us from a life of any lamentable affairs. He was our passionate protector. He never absolved himself from any responsibility or duty to do what was right at the time and cared less what others thought in the present to do what was best for our future.

He gave us a life worth remembering not regretting.  He left us a past to treasure not history to hide.

It’s to his good Lord and mine that I give great thanks.

Indeed, the means for an imposing figure.

Read:  1 Corinthians 15:57

Three years is apparently some “sweet spot” for achieving proficiency.

Can you possibly achieve proficiency in dealing with the loss of a loved one?  That means to be accomplished and good at it.

I don’t think I could say that.

Reign

I hear the rain.

You have poured this over us for the hundredth-millionth time.

It can feel cleansing.

Reminding us You reign.

When a lot is going on.

You reign.

When we want to kick up the dirt.

You reign.

I hear it pour.

When sighing has become our daily food and our groans pour out like water.

You reign.

When we’re flooded with complaints and pour out our troubles.

You reign.

Quench our thirst, O God.

Pour out Your Spirit.

Let it reign.

Read:  Isaiah 44:3, Job 3:24

Allergies

Irritation.  Redness.  Swollenness.  Itchiness.  Prick test.  Patch test.

Allergies!

Mine is unknown.  It only occurs around the eyes.  It’s been a year.  I have an exhaustive list of all that’s been eliminated. Nothing is conclusive, but I was told most recently the allergy could be  “fragrance”.

I thought, well that stinks!

Have you ever had to pay any particular attention to an ingredient list?  Fragrance is everywhere. It’s in everything.

It’s potentially toxic to me.

I was so bummed imagining the absence of fragrance and what to do.   I have literally and most recently chased down a woman in a store to find out what perfume she was wearing.  And, now to never possess a signature scent!

But, oh!  Wait a spritzer!

We’re told, “Our lives are a fragrance presented by Christ to God.”

It’s not the perfume.

It’s our lives that are to be sweet-smelling.  Underline “our lives”.

“He uses us to tell others about the Lord and to spread the Good News like a sweet perfume.”

Oh, God?  Who is adequate for such a task as this?  I’m pretty sure of the likely stench of this on me.  I doubt anyone will be following me down an aisle to get a whiff of this.

“But Christ loved and gave Himself as a sacrifice to take away our sins and God was pleased.”

He calls it, “sweet perfume.”

It’s His signature scent.

Read: 2 Corinthians 2:14-17; Ephesians 5:2; Romans 15:16 (NLT)

Dr. Seuss

What is it about Dr. Seuss?

Color, rhyme, and nonsense intrigued this 2-year-old on the lap of his 8-year-old cousin.

He wanted to know who is “Sam-I-Am”.

Well, he does not like green eggs and ham.

And He would not could not in a boat, a tree, a box, or a house.

Nor could he would he with a goat, fox, or mouse.

Until, he gave it a try.

Then. Welp.

He is not that same guy.

There are many elements that draw us into intrigue.

What if one’s not who we thought?

A time ago, people were demanding to know who Jesus was.  A lot had been going on.

Did He didn’t He in a boat?

Could He would He in a house?

Will He won’t He on a colt?

“Who do you say I am?”  Jesus asked.

There were those confused who mentioned prophets.

There were those convinced who said Messiah, the Son of the living God.

It was the Lord who said,

“I am the Alpha and Omega,

beginning and end.

I am the one who is,

who always was,

who’s still to come.

I am the Almighty One.”

If you want to know,

“I am who I am.”

Read: Malachi 3:6; Matthew 16:15; Exodus 3:14, Revelation 1:7-8 (NLT)