Mark, I am Your Father

Sunday 5/4/2014 5:41 AM

On May 1, 1969, my dad entered the hospital for what would be the last time.  He suffered from emphysema and during the previous night he experienced a bloody nose that they could not stop from bleeding.  I was thirteen at the time and after my siblings and I left for school my mom called an ambulance and they took him to the hospital.  The doctors didn’t expect him to survive the day but after they staunched the flow of blood he made a bit of a comeback.  Nearly two weeks later the doctors told my mom that he was going to slip into a coma and would not recover.  After receiving the news my mom came home and told me while sitting on the bed in my room.  We cried together on the bed and eventually my mom got up from the bed and left the room.  I remember sitting on the bed wondering what my life would look like without a father when I sensed God’s presence in the room and I heard a voice saying, “I am your father.”  I had an overwhelming assurance that everything was going to be all right in spite of the fact that my dad was going to die.  That experience has stayed with me throughout the years and whenever I am faced with difficult circumstances I have the assurance that God is with me.

My theme for the week is the Lord is with you and today’s reading included Psalm 116.  Many of the verses remind me of my experience as a thirteen-year-old child and I feel like I could have written part of the psalm.  “I love the Lord, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy.  Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.  The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came over me; I was overcome by distress and sorrow.  Then I called on the name of the Lord: ‘Lord, save me!’  The Lord is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion.  The Lord protects the unwary; when I was brought low, he saved me.  Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.  For you, Lord, have delivered me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living. … What shall I return to the Lord for all his goodness to me?  I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.  I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.  Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants.  Truly I am your servant, Lord; I serve you just as my mother did; you have freed me from my chains.”

When I was overcome with distress and anguish over the looming death of my dad God came to me to give me assurance.  Throughout the years God has kept me from becoming distraught over adverse circumstances by allowing me to walk with him through them.  God has freed me from the chains that so often bind those who lose a parent at a young age and has allowed me to serve him just as my mother has served him throughout the years.  The closing verses of Psalm 116 are my song today, “I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the Lord.  I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the Lord–in your midst, Jerusalem.  Praise the Lord!”