Sermon Central
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A Blessed Moment
Contributed by Ferdinand Funk on Sep 26, 2008 (message contributor)
A Blessed Moment
I want to share a personal story with you that meant the world to me. I have seldom felt so loved and appreciated by my father as on our last trip visit our parents in Paraguay just a few months ago. I share this story because I want families. And, you might say that it is even a bit self-serving. And so it is -- I love my dad and he loves me.
During our visit, on one occasion when we were sitting in the living room, my dad read me a letter that I had written to him more 20 years ago. As soon as he heard that we were coming, he was excited. And in the weeks before our arrival whenever we would talk on the phone he would tell me about this letter I had written to him and he wanted me to read it.
You can just imagine how my anxiety level shot through the roof. I vaguely remembered that I had written a letter to my dad
during my College years. I remembered that in my early 20s I could still be a fairly tactlessness person...and that I had written that letter fully aware, that I was reasonably safe with about 10,000 Km of air travel between us. And, in that letter I had said "thank you"
for all the good things I had at home growing up, even if at times it had felt a bit like a dictatorship.
When my dad brought out that letter, he was grinning ear to ear. And when he got to that part, his comment was, "I didn't know that was the perception you had of me." I said, "Yes, you could have had a pretty successful career as an army general..." We all had a good laugh, and there was soo much love in the room. It was one of those moments you want to hang on to for the rest of your life.
What a moment of blessing! What a gift! First from a son to his father in a simple and honest letter many years ago...The gift of gratitude for a job well done in raising me, and letting go when the time had come ... And then I received the greatest gift that my father could ever give to me. He said, "My son, I love you. I am a blessed man because I have you as my son."
There are some things money can't buy... This was one of those things!
(For everything else, there's Dad's Mastercard.)
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