A Father's Legacy

My Mom has been going through some old love letters from my Dad and shredding them.

Aaaack! I can understand, though.

She said she's thinking about a time when her kids might go through her things, and she doesn't want them to read the private thoughts and conversations of their parents.

Sounds like some of those thoughts were a little too romantic for the children! ha ha!

She showed me this one recently, and I was so touched by it. For starters, my Dad's handwriting looks so young here! He was probably less than 25 years old at the time...so my son's age.

I loved this long paragraph where he describes the eternal quality of their love.

But it was this last line that really got me.

"God has surely been so very kind to me."

Hesed: God's loving kindness. My father felt this deeply as a young man. And I'm pretty sure that as he lay dying in our family's home, these were probably among his last thoughts as well.

That was my Father's legacy to me, a faith that remembered God's loving kindness and lived in the gratitude of that "hesed" every day.

On this Sunday, I was able to take the bread and wine, the forgiveness of sins, and have this precious meal with my Dad in the communion of saints.

It was a beautiful way to spend Father's Day.

Blessings, cafe friends!