This year has been a year of changes for our family. On January 21st, the Lord called my mother home to glory after an 18 year trial with cancer. In His mercy, He granted one of my desires I had expressed through many prayers. I prayed that He would allow me to be there with my mom when she passed from this life into the next.
I truly believed it would be many years from now, when my mom was much older. However, His ways are perfect. When the Lord called her home at the young age of 67, I was able to be with her, holding her hand as she breathed her last breath on this earth, and stepped from this life into eternity in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. How do I know?
2 Corinthians 5:6-8
6 6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
7 7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
8 8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
Though she has been in glory for almost a full year and has experienced things I can only imagine, I am persuaded that she still thinks of us prays for those of us who have been left behind.
Before my mom went to glory, she knew that Sarah was pregnant with our 6th child. Five months later on June 1st, the Lord, who had taken my mother home, gave us another son...Andrew Paul. In all my wildest imagination, I never dreamed my wife and I would have 6 children. We have been blessed with 3 girls and 3 boys.
With the addition of Andrew, our small 1200 sqft home became smaller. Though it would work for now, I thought about the future when we would have 3 adult sized children in each bedroom and those rooms all of a sudden looked really small. We decided to sell our house.
Through no small trying of our faith, the Lord brought to pass the sell of our house and the purchase of another... an 1800 soft home on 1 acre at the end of a perfectly quiet cul-de-sac. We moved in this past September and from day one it seemed as though we have lived here forever. Our old home seems like just another house now...one that someone else owns. The house we are currently living in seems like home, because that is where my family lives.
Today I had the awesome privilege of seeing a friend I grew up with, but hadn't seen since we were 19 years old...that's 24 years ago. It was good to see Cris, meet his wife and one of his two daughters. It just doesn't seem that we are old enough to be able to say that anything was 24 years ago, yet here we are.
Now we come to the end of the year 2016. When I wake up it will be 2017. Oh, may the Lord be pleased to reveal a deeper understanding of Himself to us through the study of His word. For the past several Sundays I have been preaching on the names and titles of Jesus Christ found in the Scripture. He is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. He is the Cornerstone. He is the Rock of our Salvation. He is Wonderful. He is our Counsellor. He is the Prince of Peace. He is our Deliverer.
That is what I intend to preach on tomorrow... Jesus Christ, our Deliverer. Oh, that we could really grasp what it means that we who are saved have been delivered by Jesus Christ! May He be pleased to bring clarity of thought and speech as I preach tomorrow.
What a brief summary of events in 2016! But, at least I got it in under the wire! Happy New Year!
