A few days ago, my great Uncle left the trials of this life for the radiant glory of Christ and what I know was a blessed reunion with his beautiful bride of many years who had gone on before.
I've thought about him many times over the last few days, especially in regards to a time that he and my great aunt welcomed me with open arms into their home in California and shared a week of their lives with me. They showed me around, took me for walks on the beach, band concerts downtown, and we even made a good attempt to go whale-watching (the weather was not fit for it and I needed to depart that day). I had a great time with them, but the thing I remember most was waking up to them praying together in the kitchen every morning. I heard them pray. For the nation. For their friends. And for my family.
I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that my life today is a testimony to the grace of God and the persevering prayers of a couple who believed that Christ needed to intervene in our family. Because of their mornings at the kitchen table with the King of Kings, a generation of Christ followers was birthed in a lineage that had lacked it. Their children (and distant nieces) have now been blessed with a heritage of faith and we are richer for it.
My great uncle was a strong person- so much like my own paternal grandmother. He was a great surgeon and a bright man, and like many of us with Holian blood (and the curse of Adam), he knew it. Humility may not have been his strength, but he had a fierce love for his family, for his wife, and for his God. And though he's no longer with us, these are the things we celebrate.
He has gone from glory to glory. And because of his life (and most certainly, my dear aunt's), that glory to glory may just spread from generation to generation.
Thank you, Father God, for those who have walked with you and given their family an inheritance of faith. Lead us, by your grace, to grant that same inheritance to the next generation.
I've thought about him many times over the last few days, especially in regards to a time that he and my great aunt welcomed me with open arms into their home in California and shared a week of their lives with me. They showed me around, took me for walks on the beach, band concerts downtown, and we even made a good attempt to go whale-watching (the weather was not fit for it and I needed to depart that day). I had a great time with them, but the thing I remember most was waking up to them praying together in the kitchen every morning. I heard them pray. For the nation. For their friends. And for my family.
I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that my life today is a testimony to the grace of God and the persevering prayers of a couple who believed that Christ needed to intervene in our family. Because of their mornings at the kitchen table with the King of Kings, a generation of Christ followers was birthed in a lineage that had lacked it. Their children (and distant nieces) have now been blessed with a heritage of faith and we are richer for it.
My great uncle was a strong person- so much like my own paternal grandmother. He was a great surgeon and a bright man, and like many of us with Holian blood (and the curse of Adam), he knew it. Humility may not have been his strength, but he had a fierce love for his family, for his wife, and for his God. And though he's no longer with us, these are the things we celebrate.
He has gone from glory to glory. And because of his life (and most certainly, my dear aunt's), that glory to glory may just spread from generation to generation.
Thank you, Father God, for those who have walked with you and given their family an inheritance of faith. Lead us, by your grace, to grant that same inheritance to the next generation.
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