Faith: Day 2

Devotion by: Anonymous

Psalm 66:16-19

Come and hear, all you who fear God,
and I will tell what he has done for me.
I cried aloud to him,
and he was extolled with my tongue.
If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.
But truly God has listened;
he has given heed to the words of my prayer.

Today is the 28^th anniversary of my father’s death. I will never forget the 2 a.m. phone call from my mother and the shock of losing him, a beloved father and grandfather, to a massive heart attack. Within 12 hours after that call, my husband, four-year-old daughter and I had packed, picked up my sister in Pennsylvania and were on our way to gather with my brothers and sisters to mourn, to support my mother, and to start the process of commemorating my father to eternal life. Though he no longer met us at the door with his warm embrace, his faith and my mother’s did. We all rejoiced that God had blessed him with a good death -- dying in his own bed, with my mother beside him and their youngest son John there to support her, attempt CPR and to rejoice in my father’s faith in God’s will and HIS promise. My father had refused to be taken to the emergency room, had flown one of his handmade kites the afternoon before he died, and despite the pain in his chest, embraced his life and then his eternal life. One of the most touching memories I have of that week was my mother showing me a small miniature Bible. She found it inside my father’s wallet and said it had been there for decades, as she had given it to him before they were married. As I took it from her hands into mine, John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” fell open. It was obviously a favorite page to read. One of my father’s favorite hymns was Faith of Our Fathers, and he always said his favorite Psalm was the Twenty-Third. I learned faith in my mother and father’s arms.

The Bible reading today reminds me of my father: a righteous, God-fearing man, to whose prayers God listened.

PRAYER: Dear God, strengthen me today to walk in your Son’s righteousness. Thank you for giving me the greatest gift, your Son Jesus, who died for all our sins. Give everyone faith to believe in Him. Heavenly Father, bring peace to our world and strengthen parents to walk in the path of righteousness for their children’s sake. Be with all who would do evil and turn them to what Christ taught us to do -- love one another as you love us Lord. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.