Dear Daddy,

Happy Birthday! Today was the day you made your appearance in this world ninety years ago. Isn’t it interesting that in our English language, “birth” rhymes with “earth?” While May 14^th means a lot to us as we think about you today, your birthdays as recorded by time in this earthbound realm of life are over!

You had an extraordinary kind of “birth” day on December 31, just a few months ago, when you left the womb of this world and filled your brand new, glorified, eternal lungs with the breath of heaven.

What is it like there, to know that you will live for eternity and that old age will never catch up with you again? I wish you could tell me!

Your birthday reminds us that you also had another day to mark as a spiritual birthday. I don’t know exactly when it was; shame on me for never asking the details. But by your life and testimony, and the many testimonies of people who knew you and loved you, I know that one day you left behind your old life by repenting of your sin, and surrendered in faith to Jesus, trusting that His death would override the sentence of death both in your physical body and your spiritual body. Now, all those promises in scripture about eternal life, and death being just a door we walk through, have come true for you.

Colossians 1:21-23 describes what happened to you.

And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

You continued in the faith, Daddy, firmly established and steadfast. You never moved away from the hope of the gospel you heard. You weren’t a perfect man, but you knew and served a perfect Savior. When you left our world to be born (and borne by the angels) into heaven, I believe you immediately stood before the Father. Jesus, the One whom you trusted to take care of your eternity, stood beside you as Your advocate. You had to give an account of your life to the Creator, for you belonged to Him, as He had purchased your redemption.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 – Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

Hebrews 9:27 – And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.

Romans 14:10b-12 – For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.” So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.

2 Corinthians 5:9-10 – Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

Daddy, according to what God has told us in His Word, you didn’t have to give account for your sinful nature. Jesus took care of that on the cross, and you were washed white as snow, reconciled to your Creator. You did, however, have to answer for how you used your time and whether or not you lived in obedience to the commands of Jesus after He redeemed you.

1 Peter 1:17-19 – If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

I’m sure there were some regrets as you stood face-to-face with the glory of God. Things said or done or left undone. But as Paul reminded us in his letter to the Colossians, Jesus reconciled you in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.

You passed the test, not on your own merits or your own righteousness, but because Jesus stood as your advocate. When it was your turn to give account, He gently testified, “Father, this one is mine.”

So, I take comfort in that today is the best birthday celebration you could ever have. This comfort doesn’t come because heaven is just a nice idea but on the authority of the Word of God.

You are walking the streets of heaven, sharing the stories of your life, and being reminded of all the goodness of God that was poured out on the very brief vapor that we call “almost” ninety years. You look forward today, to eternity, without pain or illness or disease, or any of the heartaches of this old fallen world. You are waiting for us to join you, and I long for the day when it’s my turn to breathe the air of heaven.

Oh, how I pray that all our family and loved ones will be there to celebrate together soon.

I love you,

Sheila

 John 14:1-6 – “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”