Happy Belated Birthday

Psalm 145: 8-9 "The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. (9)The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made."

As I finished writing yesterday, I accidentally deleted the entire entry...that's technology for you. I opted to let it go and pick it back up tomorrow. Yesterday was my daddy's 55th birthday. The day we got home from the hospital, the day of his departure, McKelvey, a family friend in the fifth grade, looked up at me and kind of smiled. She said, "It's kind of cool that he died close to his birthday, well maybe not cool, but this will be his first birthday in heaven. I am sure they will have a cake, he won't need the cake but I bet if he wanted one Jesus would make him a really good one." I pray every day that the Lord would hand me over to the child within me's faith, it is so much greater than this grown up shell I live in. The noises have subsided, the people are gone, our house looks like an arboretum (it smells like one too), and this fading world continues to spin around us. Different. Nothing is quite the same, as was to be expected. My dad's notice to renew his driver's license came in the mail two days ago, and his home health care called to confirm an appointment for the following day. I suppose they didn't get the memo or read the paper. We all kind of go in cycles: laughing, crying, cleaning, eating (and then we start over). The Lord has proven to be so faithful in giving His peace, His protection, and His presence in the days past as I am confident He will continue too in the days to come. As it is all still setting in, the sobering reality of heaven and hell are too. Heaven is a real place. Our God is a real God. He is just as real in the moments that I "feel" Him as He is in the moments that I don't. He is as certain as the air we breathe. There is nothing more real or certain than Him. I am always comforted when I think about this truth, and my dad is believing it and living it in a whole new way. Amazing. The blessing that Jesus gives in Matthew, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet still believe," no longer includes him. He has SEEN and is SEEING in this very second. What am I doing today that would further me in this world rather than the inevitable real one to come? My prayer would be that we would "fix our eyes, not on what is seen, but on what is unseen; for what is seen is temporary and what is unseen is eternal." I love you all more then I ever could begin to convey. Please continue to pray for my family, as these new days have new joys, struggles, and hurts all their own. God is good. Blessings family...