My gift-from-God dad at age 80
The other night my dad called because he had a praise to share with me. He said, “I want to tell you how good God is to me.”
It seems he had a $50 check to cash that morning – given as “rent” by an ex-offender who is paroled to him. Due to this particular bank’s policy, he wasn’t able to cash the check there. [By the way, I put rent in quotes because he never really receives enough to cover his expenses, but he is always glad when they are able to pay something.]
From the bank that refused to cash the check, Dad went on to Ace Hardware to purchase some items, then to the post office to mail a package. When he prepared to pay for the postage, he discovered his money clip containing $180 (a fortune really to him) was gone. He thinks he dropped it at Ace Hardware.
I kept waiting to hear him tell the part that described how he’d found the money clip in some miraculous way. Nope. He retraced his steps, but didn’t find the money clip. He called Ace and no one had turned it in.
Instead, Dad spoke of God’s hand of providence in his life that morning. He was overcome with joy that the bank he had visited in the morning wouldn’t cash the $50 check. Once he had done what he could to find the money clip, he then went to the right bank and cashed the check. Now, he had something to sustain him until his social security check was deposited a week hence.
As he told me the story over the phone, I could hear his voice cracking and I knew he was swallowing hard to avoid crying, not bitter tears, but rather tears of joy! His heart was truly joy-filled that he had $50 left!
He said to me, “Most every day I get a ‘bump on the head’ but I also get a blessing every day, too.”
I admit that as I listened to him, my mind raced to a check I had sent to him a couple of weeks before in remembrance of his 81st birthday. I figured that money was probably a part of what was contained in the lost money clip.
I wanted to lament: “Really, Dad?! $180?!”
But God’s grace filled me and I was able to resist putting this event through a material-focused filter. Instead I was able to whole-heartedly declare, “I’m praising God with you, Daddy.” What a blessing to hear Dad trusting God’s sovereignty!
Back in the days of my childhood, God would not have been glorified if the same circumstances had unfolded. When I was young, my dad was self-centered and a slave to the pursuit of money for his own glory. He did not regard the needs of his family. (The consequences of this part of his life are still long- and far-reaching. He and I continue to wait upon God’s redeeming hand in the hearts of those who still regard him through the filter of who he was without Jesus, not who he is with Jesus.)
Today, with the grace of Jesus evident in his life, it is an honor to rejoice with Dad that God chose to bless him with $50, instead of blessing him with literal pennilessness. Dad is still a slave, but this time he is a slave to Jesus. He is surrendered to what God wants to do in and through his life.
The gift of eternal life with Jesus makes it pretty easy for Dad to rejoice even in the loss of $180 and allows him to see the remaining $50 as a gift.
I am in awe of God – that He allowed my dad to live long enough to be able to minister to some of the most disenfranchised of our society.
And I am so grateful that Dad called to share this praise with me – that I get to rejoice with him – that I get to observe him being transformed day by day.
Though we don’t live in the same town and don’t get to see each other as much as we would like, he is still a tremendous reflection of the gospel. What a good example he is to me and my children!
Thank you, Jesus, for transforming my dad for Your glory and for his good, and for granting him the wisdom to see this life through Your eyes!
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor?” Or who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid?” For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.
Romans 11:33-36
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