Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Now, while I have the chance...

Last night, I had to go to a "viewing" for a friend's dad who passed away last week. I really did not want to go, but knew that it was not about me, but what I could offer by being there for my friend. I got there late, (there was all of that dinner-bedtime stuff that had to be handled first) but I was glad that I did go.

I have this picture in my mind of Carl (her Dad) standing out in front of our old house during a yard sale. He had ridden his sidecar motorcycle over, to draw people to stop and take a look. He had built the cycle from scratch and it was a sight to behold! So, I see him, standing in the sun, with the wind in his hair and that great big smile on his face as he talked with anyone who stopped to look at his cycle. That is how I want to remember him - so I asked my friend if she was okay with me not going up to the casket. She said, no problem, that the person in that box was not her Dad, and she wished that she had not had to see him that way either.

All the way home, I thought about what it must be like to lose your Dad, I can't imagine the loss you must feel when you have had a great Dad, like she and I have, the huge hole that must open up inside you. But I do have this hope. Hope that whenever the time comes that I have to face this, I know that God is bigger than all of the loss, that He loves me even more than my Daddy - if that is possible - and that one day, I will see my Daddy again, and "oh what a day of rejoicing that will be!".

So, I think I will go and call my Daddy now. Tell him that I love him and send him a big hug over the phone line. Now, while I have the chance.

t

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