Don't Forget About Me

Luke 15:20: And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him

My dad is just a blur in my memory. I can barely remember visits with him as a child and that suited me just fine. My mama  was the only father and mother that I knew. After I married and had children, they had questions about their grandfather but there wasn't much that I could tell them about him, because there was not much that I knew or cared to have known about him. I did take them to meet him once and that placated them for a while, but a few months ago I got a message that I had been dreading and it said "your daddy wants to see you".

I avoided the meeting like the plague. I was tempted to just meet him and get it over with, but every time the thought came to my mind, I would have memories of my mama going to clean houses in the snow to put food on the table and I would become filled with guilt of betraying her and she was no longer alive for me to ask her how she felt about me meeting him.

My mama took care of both of her parents until they died and I made a vow that I would honor my mother just as I was commanded by the Lord to do in Exodus 20:12. For me to honor her was not just to take care of her but to respect her when she was alive and to respect her in her death also.  So for me the best thing to do was to forget about the whole situation of meeting this man. As you can see to even say the name dad is foreign to me. I have to be honest and say that even to say the word as it relates to him causes me to have heart palpitations.

But I could not get the thought of him out of my mind. I would wake up in the mornings thinking about him. I would lay down at night thinking about him and then I realized that it was not an issue of me betraying my mama but it was the issue of would I obey my Heavenly Father, whom I said that  I love above all else. I made up my mind quite quickly that I would obey God.

I asked my daughter and granddaughter would they go with me to me him and of course they said yes. I told him that we would come to his house this past Saturday at 4:00 pm. As soon as we arrived at the door, we could hear the excitement in his voice. He greeted my granddaughter first, my daughter hugged him and I stood there almost paralyzed without knowing how to greet him and finally he extended his hand and I shook it.

We stayed for a while and we talked about many things. Finally the time came for us to leave and out no where I asked him what was his plans for Christmas and he said that he did not have any and I asked him if he wanted to spend Christmas day with us and he said that he would love to. So we will be having a new member of the family with us on Christmas day.

As we were leaving I did follow my daughter's lead and hug him before we left, and as we were leaving he said the strangest thing. He said "don't y'all forget about me". That was very strange because he was the one who seemed to have forgotten about me all of those years ago when I was a child. That was the reason that my heart grew cold toward him, because he forgot about me when he stopped coming around.

But something wonderful happened for me in spite of him not coming around. I gained a Heavenly Father, who taught me how to be a daughter. The Lord has shown me that I can still honor this man even though he was not a daddy to me. I won't forget about him, because the Lord took me in and became that Daddy that I never knew and he taught me how to be a daughter. I am able to show him unconditional love, by being a godly daughter who can honor him because my Father took His word and applied it to my life and now I am ready to honor my prodigal father. 

I made a promise to God that with His help that I will honor my earthly dad until the day I die. I thank God that He did not forget about me. The only thing that I want from my earthly dad is for him to come to know my Abba.

Twice Pardoned

Acts 20: 24 But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

We were having family time last night and as we took turns telling the Lord of what we were thankful to Him for, my granddaughter Darcel said " I'm thankful to God for not allowing me to die like all of those other babies who died because their parents weren't married, even though they still went to heaven, they had to die in order to go there, but he chose to  let me live." I then asked her, since God had spared her life what did she think he wanted her to do with it?  and she did not hesitate to say that " He wants me to live my life for Him".

That was an awe inspiring moment for me. You see, my daughter was not married when she became pregnant with my granddaughter and I must admit at the time I wished that the situation would have just faded away, because of the shame that I felt,  but anyone who knows me would tell you that I love my granddaughter with every fiber within me and also that I think my granddaughter is one of the greatest blessings that the Lord have ever bestowed upon me.

We live in a day and age when all that we can think of is a quick solution to every problem that comes into our lives and unfortunately abortion is a sad solution that even Christians are turning to. This is what my granddaughter was referring to when she talked about God not allowing her to die like those other babies. She has been taught since she was a small child that her parents were not married but she was given to us from God. I'm proud to hear her say since God spared her life she would sacrifice her life for Him.

I'm thankful that Jesus can relate to my granddaughter and to other children like her because he was ridicule because Joseph was not his real father. I'm thankful that Mary took on the Higher Call of God and gave birth to the Messiah who extends eternal life to all who will believe in Him. My granddaughter is very much aware that Jesus spared her life not once but twice. She knows that God could have allowed her to go to heaven before she had a chance to be born and she is also aware that Jesus spared her life by dying in her place and therefore she has been twice pardoned. We are so grateful to Him for her and we will do all that we can to help her to live her life for Him.

Whether you have been pardoned once or twice, you too, Live your life for Him.