In the wake of dad's passing...

Hello Friends, it's been awhile since I've posted, but here I am again. A lot has happened since I last had something to say...my father was moved to hospice, he declined rapidly, and then went to be with the Lord:

Friday, April 11, 4:35 pm. And just like that, he was gone.

How does a life so vibrant get reduced to nothing? How is it that God should partner with mankind and bring us into being at our first nano-moment of life and then at some point later we are no more in this body? This has to be one of the wildest mysteries of life...profound...even despairing...

...if it weren't for the good providence of God.

I watched a provocative movie last night, "Tuck Everlasting." It essentially questioned the desirability of living forever in this body, in this life. It posited a family who had unknowingly drunk from a spring that mystically made them impervious to injury, to age, to dying. Though this family had many bright points to their long lives together, they were unable to live among others, to be known as the real people they were, because of the threat of being discovered as unable to age, unable to die. It was presented in the film as a burden to them.

It really is an interesting question: if we could live forever in this body, would we choose to do so? If there really was a "fountain of youth," would we choose to drink from it?

Of course we all do live forever...it's either with or without God, and with whatever consequences this means.

I don't know if I'd want to drink from a magical spring that froze my body forever in its current state, but I am thankful that God has provided me the security of life for today followed by life for tomorrow.

I miss you, dad, and I look forward to seeing you in That Place again someday, together with our Lord...

Lookin' Up, Pastarod

This guy is waking me up...

I don't know what his deal is, but there is a male Red-Shafted Flicker that lands on my roof in the mornings, sqwawks a few times and then does his machine-gun thing on one of the metal pieces of my roof. It's SO LOUD and when it comes at 5 am it's a bit undesired! Jenna and I went out on the front lawn yesterday to look at him when he showed up at the more convenient time of 7:30am. I decided he's not actually trying to smash through the metal.

I think it's all about getting a chick. "Males will do the strangest things when it's all about females." That's just the way it is...

Lookin' Up, Pastarod