Now that our family members from out of town have left for home  and the funeral services have been completed, mother and I are trying to adjust to a life that my dad is physically no longer a part of. I cannot tell you in human word the amazing STRENGTH and PEACE and PRESENCE that God Himself has poured out on Mother and I through every single thing we’ve had to face and take care of over the past week. It is what you hear people talking about when they loose a loved one and God literally holds them in His mighty embrace. But you can’t know what they mean until you experience it and we have! Praise be to the Lord of Heaven and earth!

I would like to take a moment to express my most sincere gratitude to everyone of you dear readers that committed to praying for my father and our whole family as we sat by his bed, singing, reading God’s Word, and telling Him of Jesus’ love.  We were able to be with him when he took his last breath and we beheld the peace on his face. He wasn’t able to declare to us the great things God had done in him, as he was so weak. But God has confirmed to us that “all is well”.

Three nights before he passed, probably the last time he was responsive at all, mother and I went to “tuck him in” and sing to him. We sang “Jesus loves me” and as we did, he opened his eyes and looked at us like he knew us well and the most precious smile took over his entire little face! The smile just kept growing! It was so beautiful! We sang until he drifted off to sleep…still smiling.  The next few days, he would be in a semi-coma and not responsive at all. We are so thankful for the gift of that Friday night smile.

Because so many of you have been so faithful to pray and have contacted me to let me know that you are indeed praying, I wanted to share a writing that God gave to me to make available at my dad’s services, and my mom actually requested it be read at the funeral.  It was one last way I felt I could honor my dad, and bring God glory through his life and death.  I’ll paste it at the end.

Many, many thank-you’s to all of you dear readers for your continued prayers! The Body of Christ is such a beautiful, amazing thing!

Love & Blessings to all,

Candace

During the six months that my dad’s health declined and he was away from home, we watched God do a beautiful thing in our family. Each day, He added a new stroke to a most amazing painting that dripped with His love and grace. This picture did not look lovely to the eye at first glance. It did not seem so stunning while we were in the midst of it. It is not one you would find framed in luxurious gold and displayed in an art gallery. For, with the natural eye, it seemed unsightly and disgraceful. A man wasting away with disease, unable to go about life as a normal functioning human being. But, you see, God’s ways are so much higher than ours and He is after our whole heart. He often, will stop at nothing in winning it because of His great love for us. He is a changeless, relentless God who desires His children to fully surrender to Him.

As we watched my dad’s body waste away, we saw his spirit man being renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16). We saw his heart soften and his eyes grow tender. We were overwhelmed at the joy-filled smiles that were only comparable with an infant’s. We watched a peace that we were unable to explain wash over his face. We stood in awe as God, our loving, merciful, amazing God transformed him into an innocent, happy, little child, complete with the child-like faith that makes it possible for one to enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 18:3). Through his contagious smiles, adorable winks, sweet “I love you’s,” and positive answers to our questions about Jesus, we saw a new man emerge, though his body was so fragile and worn. We saw miracles take place that we never imagined possible. We learned to fix our eyes on things we could not see which are eternal (2 Cor. 4:18). And in seeing God’s hand so mightily at work, we were able to hand his precious life over to the God who created him and allow him to go Home in God’s perfect time.

Six months filled with tears, all sorts of emotions, and a lot of pain were highlighted with God’s amazing grace, everlasting love, and restoration that we were unable to humanly comprehend. In the dim, muted colors of sickness and death and the sounds of oxygen tanks and the assortment of medical “beeps,” we found the rich red of God’s grace and the lush green of eternal life that only Jesus can give. And in the day to day highs and lows, God gave us something that none of us deserved. He restored the years that the locusts had eaten. He took our ashes and gave us His beauty in return (Isaiah 61:3). And this unlikely picture of God’s mercy will forever hang with gratefulness to God and anticipation of a Heavenly reunion in our hearts. We are eternally thankful for His endless mercy and faithfulness toward our family and for all of the prayers of the saints. We rejoice in the God who is never slack in keeping His promises. We marvel at Christ’s unrelenting love, and we pray it will be spread abroad in each of your hearts.

 

 “To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.”

Isaiah 61:3