My daddy moved... and I MISS seeing my father's face!

.

But woe!.. at the "move" that he made!

I just wish for a moment that I could run for a visit. My mama so very, very, very much misses him too! I'm sure, a zillion times more than I ever do!

We talked about him today. But then again, when lately do we not? He's the subject of our minds. Our pivotal focus. Especially what her mind is fastly fixed upon.

They were married for 56 years! Something to boast about and be proud of in today's world. How thrilled I am that they stayed together. That they stuck it out no matter the mood or the madness of the moment. For better or for worse. For richer or for poorer. In good times and in bad. In joy as well as sorrow. In sickness and in health. To love and to cherish. Til death do us part.

They promised that. And that's exactly what they did.

They had their share of "better" times... and their share, too, of "worse"! They enjoyed a lot of "rich"... and trudged through the stressing seasons of "poor." There was a load of "good times"... and they stuck it out through the "bad." They basked in the "joy".... and sowed tears (sometimes feeling alone and sometimes  t(w)ogether) in their "sorrow" and still made it through. The "healthy" days were greatly cherished..... because there was so much "sick." And through it all... "to love and to cherish" (even when fury tempted and rage bellowed) is just how they lived.

Until....

"Til death do us part"...

Death did just that. It parted their "us".

You fail to hear those words and realize them while vowing aloud the words that the minister has you repeating. But hearing them today, thinking of them today, they ring in my ears. "Until death do us PART!" Oh! That there dare ever has to be such "part"ing!

The tearing a-"part" is excruciating. Once you've lived together for that long, you don't have a thought without the other. You're "one"..... and somehow that "one" is torn into "two".... when there's no more a "two" to tear. I know my mom can go on. But still at this point, she wonders how she can do life for the rest of hers without him? Such anguish is torturing. Agony consumes her. Fear trembles her. A vacancy envelopes her. The "hole" left inside her hurts!

I do miss my dad. And sometimes... even though she's here, I so miss my mama too!

She's (we've!) had so much loss this year! And the season for "taking" ("the Lord gives and takes away") seems far from over yet. The taking is still being took. I'm sure she feels a glimpse of Job. She finds herself in some ways, walking Naomi's same road.

And yet with Job and Ruth and Naomi and Joseph.... their lives didn't end in their despair. Though it felt often and long as if it wasn't, there still existed in the distress: hope! Hope in a Savior that saves! Hope in a Redeemer that still lives and lives to redeem... and that is the same today as He will be tomorrow and was in yesterday.

Oh wow, I miss that father of mine! And my mama misses that man that she married! She misses the one she said "I do" to... and she still wants to "do" as much as she ever did! But it's not this life that we're living here for.... for it's here that we're preparing for the move to the next one! OH, at the move that my daddy's made! He's been packing his bags and been readying for that Place for years. He just moved ealier than we had wanted him to. And mostly, I guess, we hate that he made the move without us. Oh, for when we'll see him again! And there in that Home that he lives... with another Father, the Father we long more than ever to feast our eyes upon in a real live face-to-face forever!

What a Day that will be... when I see my real Father's face!
.