I conclude this series by honoring my dad. If you follow this blog, you know I couldn’t honor some of the great people in my life without including him.
The photo above is from his latter years, obviously. I never fully adjusted to this reality in his existence, because he had always been youthful and athletic and exuberant. But in his final years, he bore the deeper fruit of a lifelong walk with God.
At the center of dad’s life was union with Christ. He taught it as a doctrine, he lived it as a reality. This old poem was important to him:
So near, so very near to God
Nearer I could not be
For in the person of his Son
I’m just as near as he.
So dear, so very dear to God
Dearer I could not be
The love wherewith he loved his Son
Is the love he has for me!
I think about what that cheesy poetry is saying, and I choke up. Could it be true? Could it really be true? Is that the deepest reality of my existence, whatever else might be real? Yes, it is true, and all by grace. That changes everything. It did for my dad.
Union with Christ, as biblical doctrine and as personal communion, is the only way I can explain my dad’s luminous quality. In 1974 he wrote a book. The title might seem brash: Lord, Make My Life A Miracle! But union with Christ creates and authorizes and dignifies that aspiration. It is the secret to my dad’s life, as God answered his prayer. For that I honor, above all others, the Lord himself.
