Only the Beginning

I'm glad that I have eternal life because I know that I will spend forever with our perfectly, unconditionally, loving God

My father died at the age of 76 as a consequences of his cancer treatment. I had the rare privilege of spending the last week of his life with him. The week was beautiful with friends coming to visit him and one teenager brought her concert harp to the house to play hymns for him. During this time, he did not appear to be conscious. One evening, I was reading out loud from the Bible and I was reading the gospel of John. I read the section where Jesus says that he is going before us and preparing a room for us in our Father's house. Tears began to roll down my father's eyes as he waited to go join Jesus. On the last night of his life, my dad, sat up and reached out with a smile on his face to meet his Creator and Redeemer. It was the only time during the week that dad had physically moved.

The confidence that I saw in my dad's face is the same confidence that I feel each day, that I will eventually join God and spend eternity with him. Every day, I feel God's living presence and his guiding, loving hand as He molds me and shapes me to become more like Jesus. I know that every time I fall short of His mark, He will forgive me.