Happy Birthday Dad! Today my father celebrates his 57th year of life. He will celebrate the day with my mom, two of his grand-children and his two dogs (Jack and Jill). He will go for a walk, a dinner out, undoubtedly for cheese burgers, and have fun with the family. He will attempt to not smoke a cigarette, praying for you there Dad, and he will be missing us and my sister, while longing for a simpler life. This year has been an especially difficult one for my dad, and I know he is hoping year 58 will have less drama, tragedy and sickness. However in spite of a progressive disease, a broken family and sick parents, my Dad has approached this year with grace and mercy. He has attempted to love all of us with all that he has to give. He gets up each day incredibly early and lugs his tired body to work and to play and to bed, just to do it again the next day. He has been picking up a lot of pieces of a lot of brokenness this year, and I know he is doing it with an eager hope of something better tomorrow, both in this life and in the next. Dad, I love you! Thank you for the great example you have been to all of us in the midst of much difficulty and suffering. I know you wish all of this wasn't so, but I also know you are eagerly awaiting new days, new life and resurrection. I love you, pops! Keep hoping in Jesus! This quote especially resonates with me today, after this year, on your birthday.
This is our great hope and joyful expectation. In the midst of all our struggles now, as we confront evils we cannot understand and as we cry out to the God we cannot fully understand, we are urged by Jesus himself to pray, "deliver us from evil". More than merely a prayer for daily protection, that is a cosmic request that will one day be cosmically answered. God will answer that prayer! It will be fully answered at the moment when God answers two other phrases in the Lord's Prayer: "your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:10).
When the reign of God extends over every corner of the universe, when the earth is filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea, when the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ, when heaven and earth are renewed and united under the righteous rule of Christ, when the dwelling place of God is again with humanity, when the city of God is the center of all redeemed reality - then we will have been delivered from all evil forever.
The cross and the resurrection of Christ accomplished it in history and guarantee it for all eternity. In such hope we can rejoice with incomparable joy and total confidence.
- Dr. Christopher Wright, The God I Don't Understand, p. 71
Happy Birthday Dad! Today my father celebrates his 57th year of life. He will celebrate the day with my mom, two of his grand-children and his two dogs (Jack and Jill). He will go for a walk, a dinner out, undoubtedly for cheese burgers, and have fun with the family. He will attempt to not smoke a cigarette, praying for you there Dad, and he will be missing us and my sister, while longing for a simpler life. This year has been an especially difficult one for my dad, and I know he is hoping year 58 will have less drama, tragedy and sickness. However in spite of a progressive disease, a broken family and sick parents, my Dad has approached this year with grace and mercy. He has attempted to love all of us with all that he has to give. He gets up each day incredibly early and lugs his tired body to work and to play and to bed, just to do it again the next day. He has been picking up a lot of pieces of a lot of brokenness this year, and I know he is doing it with an eager hope of something better tomorrow, both in this life and in the next. Dad, I love you! Thank you for the great example you have been to all of us in the midst of much difficulty and suffering. I know you wish all of this wasn't so, but I also know you are eagerly awaiting new days, new life and resurrection. I love you, pops! Keep hoping in Jesus! This quote especially resonates with me today, after this year, on your birthday.
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