When my sister called to tell me that my mother had died, she also told me she had just taken my father to the emergency room because he had been having chest pains. My mother had been failing for several years and had been in the nursing home since February of this year. Nonetheless, to hear she had actually died was a shock. But to hear that my father may also be dying was overwhelming.
Thankfully, the doctor and all the doctor's machines could not detect any heart problems.
My father and I have always had a comfortable relationship. He knows he's always been a very good father to me and I know that he is satisfied with me as his son. Being the youngest child, I was not the son for whom he had high expectations. I was his "comfort" child.
We have good conversations. As an adult, he has rarely given me advice, but what advice he has given, I have gratefully received. I don't remember that we have ever had an argument. (Recently I did tell him that something he said was an over statement. After giving it some thought, and without any sense of lost dignity, he agreed with me and rephrased what he had said.)
Unlike the Lord Jesus, my father has never sent me on a mission. But, many years ago, I did leave his home. Over the years, I have returned "home" first with my girlfriend, who became my wife; then with my wife and children; and now with my wife, children and grandchildren. His home has always remained my home and now that my mother is in Glory, I've let him know that our home is his home. Next month he will spend a couple of weeks with us at our home.
Our Lord Jesus left His father's home and accomplished all that His Father set out for Him to do. And what was that? To bring us home with Him and to be at home with His Father forever.
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