Daily Scripture Reading: Psalm 21; Isaiah 41:14-20; Romans 15:14-21

Anyone who knows me for any period of time will know that I feel like I had the best father in the whole wide world. I realize that I may not be alone in my thoughts of their parent being the best but in my case it is true. So you may ask yourself, why would I think that?

My father was an encourager. If you were involved in an activity, he wanted to know all about it and help you achieve your goals. He was loving, giving, patient and kind hearted. When I read the beatitudes all I can think about is my father. Growing up he made us Bible Flash cards out of business cards he received. He read a bible story every evening and a book or chapter from a childhood story before saying prayers. When he read the Bible Stories to us, the people of the Bible came to life. We learned of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. He would pray and end his prayers asking God to keep us in the hollow of his hand. What a comforting image that was. We learned life lessons, and we learned first hand about love, mercy and forgiveness. To say we (my siblings and I) were blessed was an understatement. It was easy to understand the love of our Heavenly Father because of the love our father had shown to us.

Following Christ wasn’t second nature to my father, it was his nature. And, as good of a father as he was to us, he was as good of a grandfather to all our children. A visit to or from granddaddy was a treat. My father not only treated his family with the love of Christ, he treated everyone he encountered this way. He always thought it better to err on the side of doing too much than doing too little when it came to serving others.

So, when we received the devastating news in September 2006 that my father had cancer it hit us all hard. We were probably like everyone else who gets this type of news. First you are in shock, then you form a plan of action, then you start your treatments. Unfortunately, by the time they found the cancer and treatment was underway, the cancer was rapidly growing and both the treatments and my father couldn’t keep up.

In the 3 1⁄2 short months my father fought, family came from North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi to visit my father. Not just family in the traditional sense but family in the sense of being united in Christ. On Thanksgiving that year we gathered together to ask the Lord’s blessings and sang hymns, praying for a miraculous healing. It was not to be. On December 14, 2006 my father passed from this life.

The devastation was swift and sure. How could this be? Why would God decide that it was time for my father? He was still tending to his infirmed step mother. My parents had been married over 50 years, Mother would be devastated. I was devastated! Why hadn’t we had more time to prepare? I know there was a time to be born and a time to die. I know the Psalmist said, “Help me to number my days”. But right then, that didn’t soothe. There were decisions to be made, preparations to be done, obits to be written. And then there were THE HOLIDAYS! How can I celebrate anything when my sheltering tree was gone? How could I be a comfort and help to my family, my children when I was grieving so deeply?

My brother Geoff did the impossible task of performing my father’s funeral, but whom better? Several days later our family gathered together to celebrate Christmas that year. Instead of staying mired in our grief we celebrated the life that was our father. We celebrated the love he had for us, the love he had shown to us and others, and the love of Christ he instilled in us. We sang some of his favorite hymns and I could still hear his beautiful bass voice in my head singing along with us. We have a bond in Christ that cannot be broken. A light that can come into any darkness. A light to be spread...

I think about my father almost every day. He is still with me, just in a different way. I am but a shadow of the man he was, but I see him in my siblings. I see him in my children and in my nieces and nephews. His influence reaches far and wide. As Paul said, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ.” There is a comfort in knowing that we are only temporarily separated. For me it may seem like quite a long time before we meet again, but for those who have passed it will be but a moment.

My father once wrote words of encouragement that I have shared over the years, “May you always remember that God is with you. He cares so much for you, and is there to encourage you and bring joy to your heart. When you are in the care of the Lord, you are in the best care of all.”

And that is why every holiday season, I think of my father and then I can sing, “Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her King!”

—Sarah Hooten