- Photo by Heather Ahrens
The subject matter for this weekend's service has moved me. I've been thinking about the hopes and dreams every parent - and grandparent - has for their children. I've been reading the scriptures and pondering my role as a father - and soon-to-be-grandfather.
When Aaron sent me this picture of the last moments at the Wedding Reception, I couldn't help but notice Tracy's father, standing in the doorway as his daughter walks into another chapter of life with her new husband. Her father's wish - for his beloved daughter and her new husband - may be beyond words, but it is not beyond expression.
How deep a father's love for his children!
Deuteronomy 8:5-11 - You learned deep in your heart that God disciplines you in the same ways a father disciplines his child. So it's paramount that you keep the commandments of God, your God, walk down the roads he shows you and reverently respect him.
God is about to bring you into a good land, a land with brooks and rivers, springs and lakes, streams out of the hills and through the valleys. It's a land of wheat and barley, of vines and figs and pomegranates, of olives, oil, and honey. It's land where you'll never go hungry—always food on the table and a roof over your head. It's a land where you'll get iron out of rocks and mine copper from the hills.
After a meal, satisfied, bless God, your God, for the good land he has given you. Make sure you don't forget God, your God, by not keeping his commandments, his rules and regulations that I command you today
Dear Mr. Tracy's father - I don't know you and I don't know if you even read this blog but if you do may I say something to you. Just from looking at this picture I would like to say, you are a good man. And no doubt, you have been a good father. You have married your daughter off to a good young man, and that says a lot about you. You look very proud in that picture. Proud and happy. And you deserve to be. I just want to say Thank You for raising a daughter, who along with her new husband, will be a contributing member of our society. From reading this blog and just catching a glimpse of Mark Beeson's heart, I truly believe your daughter and new son-in-law are going to be a dynamic couple. Whatever they do with their lives it will some how touch everyone around them. They will work hard to make this world a better place. For all the bad we hear about and all the bad we have to see in our world it gives me hope to know that now there's another couple out there that might just try their best. Thanks to you. You've done your job. Could you have been a better dad? Maybe. Did you make some mistakes along the way? Probably. But as that great theologian Bob Dylan said, "Don't look back." I would like to close with a verse, as Mark Beeson always does: "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Ephesians 2.10. Thank you again sir for doing your job.
Posted by: dwayne | May 29, 2009 at 09:00 PM