by Ken Ebright
“So we do not give up. Our physical body is becoming older and weaker, but our spirit inside us is made new every day.” 2 Corinthians 4:16 (NCV)
A co-worker walked into my room; she tried to force a smile but had a wistful look in her eyes as she handed me the phone. I swallowed hard as I took the phone, and my stepmother told me that my father had passed away.
It seemed like his body parts were failing him. His eyesight, kidneys, and then hip replacement surgery a few months before his death. If he had lived another week, he would have turned eighty-eight.
I found this verse a few days after the memorial service. Even though it was hard to watch dad struggle with failing health and his subsequent death, I am thankful that I know that he is with the Lord today.
Three years before my father’s death, I was forced to move out of my home due to an unscrupulous landlord. Ten days before I moved, I received a five hundred dollar check and a handwritten card, sent by my father reminding me of what heaven will be like. He reminded me that there will be no lease or damage deposits, and to pray and read the Bible constantly.
The legacy that my dad wanted to leave me is to keep the Lord first in my life. Earlier, in both of our lives, we had put other things first. The Lord disciplined me, and he changed my dad’s heart as well during the fifteen years he was absent from my life. Jesus renewed both of our lives, and we both have a fire in our soul that will never go out.
I look forward to seeing him in Heaven. I love you, dad.
Ken is a native Minnesotan and loves to sing and can play a keyboard instrument
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