My dad was 75. He had been a hard-working farmer. Ted and I knew that my parents deserved to enjoy an easier life. We orchestrated their move from the Kansas farm to Palo Alto, California, where we were in our first ministry after seminary. The believers in Ray Stedman's Peninsula Bible Fellowship enfolded my parents into the sweet love of Christ. When my dad became sick, nearly unto death those Christians were right there beside him. He came to Christ. He is with Christ. I will see him. I will be able to have a conversation with him that I longed to have on earth. I could never quite close that emotional gap that had existed between my earthly father and me. In Heaven there will be no "gaps". Oh, can we just pause for a few seconds and anticipate?
Last Sunday I nodded a "Yes" as a friend of mine spoke in a nearby church, saying these words: “I hear Christians declare that God doesn’t test us above what we can bear. Oh, yes He does!"
Life is hard. Nobody is equipped to navigate through
it without God. If you’re a young reader you may think you can handle
whatever is thrown at you. You can’t. You don’t have to.
My Ted was given a marvelous ability to relate to men of every culture, color and educational level. He understood the male pride and called their resistance to the Gospel "The death rattle of the male ego."
Stuart Hamblen had been a "resister". He came to Christ during Billy Graham’s
first big Crusade in Los Angeles. He wrote this song:
How
Big is God?
How big is God?
How big is God?
How
big and wide, His vast domain.
To
try to tell, these lips can only start.
He’s
big enough to rule His mighty universe
And
small enough to live within my heart.
Love, Jo