Grateful Rememberance

I often post my sermon notes in the hope that it will encourage someone out there. In place of that this week I would like to share with you a very personal note my father wrote to me a couple weeks ago. (With permission.) It encouraged me beyond words, and I hope it will strengthen your heart also. I hope you will be grateful for the blessings that you do not deserve, and that God does not owe you. Let us be thankful for the bountiful grace of God, sufficient to every trial. 

Jarod,
     For some reason, I was thinking of you and Anna this morning, praying for you, loving you; thankful for your most recent visit – particularly with such wonderful news about the Lord’s additional blessing in your (and our) life.

      I remembered another couple we knew pretty well.  Just married, they were all fired up with the new experiences that come with such a joyful occasion; just like you guys.  They rented a little house, and moved their stuff in.  They had their friends over to visit and sit on their “new” used furniture, being careful to have each person sign their “guest book,” particularly their family.  After a few weeks, his folks drove some distance for a visit.  They signed the book, went out to eat at a local diner, talked about the wedding, reminisced about the people who were there, and what was next.  The bride didn’t really know his parents all that well, but the visit gave a chance for additional bonding.  It was nice; not remarkable, really.  But, they were nonetheless gratified that they could “entertain” the folks in their own home; all part of this new life together.   They said their “goodbyes,” “let’s get together again soon” – kisses, hugs, a “man-to-man handshake,” and they were off.  “That was nice. What’s for supper, hon?”

       But life has a way of sometimes thrusting heartache at you when you don’t see it coming; particularly when heartache is the opposite emotion that is expected.  The young couple never touched the parents again, nor spoke to them, nor entertained them in their home (nor the parents, them), nor talked about life’s important issues (and the trivial), nor got to announce the coming of their new baby, nor reveled anymore in the delight the Dad showed in his new daughter-in-law.
       As you know by now, that young couple was your mom and I, and those parents, your grandparents, Keith and Reba.

        I’m not bitter – neither at God or the drunk driver who pierced our lives so deeply that August day; God has a wonderful way of offering grace for even life’s greatest tragedies – if we don’t resist it. But our own experience, and those experiences that followed (and didn’t), has caused me to be that much more aware and grateful for what God is doing in your life, and your mother’s and mine.  I am getting to experience what my own father did not, and – through you – experience what I could not.  To think that a death sentence was pronounced over me 7 months ago, and that I write this to you officially cancer-free, just impresses this wonderful blessing from the Lord all the more upon my grateful heart.  I can’t tell you what it means to me to share these days with you – even from a distance.    

        We never know what lies in the days or hours immediately ahead of us.  I can testify that God’s grace is sufficient for each and every moment, and that the blessings he has showered in my life are more than I could ever have deserved.  I have shed tears today, to be sure, while recounting this time in my life as a young man.  But, at this moment, they represent the showers of blessing that it is my delight to receive. 

May God bless you in ways you can only imagine today.

   With much love to you – and Anna,
        Your very proud Dad

[Did you shed any tears? I did.]  This note made me extremely thankful for the time I have with my family. And also grateful for the legacy that has been passed to me from my grandparents. Their love, kindness, and godliness echoes in my life to this day. I hope you have been blessed.

In loving memory…

Keith and Reba Hinton