GPBC Blog

The holiday season is upon us, and many are looking forward to the reliving of family traditions and the forging of new memories to complement the old ones. But for many of us, some of the key human components in those memories are no longer with us. And that can tend to weaken the potency of our anticipation. Thankfully as one generation disappears from the Thanksgiving or Christmas table, often another one comes to take its place. The ones who used to sit at the head of the table are now replaced with those who occupy the kids’ table that accommodates the family overflow. That passing on of the generations can definitely impact our perspective as we approach our end-of-year celebrations.
 
As a person who finds himself one year into retirement with family that includes my wife and two wonderful daughters and sons-in-law, who have added five grandchildren to our clan, I am beyond blessed. But I still remember and reflect on two incredible parents who gave me life and pointed me each day to the new life in Christ. They lived out the faith every day with a winsome integrity that did much to guide me down the path I have taken in life.
 
But the end of their earthy journey was not euphoric or easy. My mom passed of Parkinson’s and my dad from complications from Alzheimer’s. They both have been gone for decades. But no matter what joys or hardships they faced throughout life, their constant lesson they conveyed to me was one of an eternal perspective.
 
Even as Parkinson’s caused my mother’s bodily systems to shut down one by one, the verses she had me read to her each night, before she went bed, were 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. These verses remind us not to lose heart, because “though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” And that “our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”
 
The day my father went to be with the Lord, I found a handwritten version of Psalm 16 in the top-drawer of his bedside dresser with these verses...“LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” (Psa. 16:5-6, 8, 11)
 
As his son, I had been sitting in his room mourning not only the loss of my father, but the fact that his life from my perspective had shrunk to the point that all he owned in life was limited to the dimensions of his bedroom. But even in death he had left me a message that would broaden that perspective to the dimensions of heaven.
 
Perhaps you will be missing someone around the table this year. But like Abel in the book of Hebrews, they “being dead yet speak.” May we all hear the echoes of their faith and pass it on to the “kid’s table,” until we sit together again at an even larger table and greater celebration with the Lamb.

Happy Thanksgiving!