The Lingering Love Of God … This Is What Matters Most In Difficult Times!
Last Friday, suddenly and quite unexpectedly, my dad, or pop as I called him, quietly passed away.
Just three weeks prior, Pop had received a brutal diagnosis and endured a surgical intervention … so we knew that he was facing a huge challenge … but we had no idea that the time of his departure was so near.
The timing of that moment was very unique and special.
My brother, who walked every day with pop had suggested that we, as siblings, needed to come together and be with pop, so my two sisters and I planned to arrive on Friday.
Sadly, things became critical quite quickly and by Thursday we were told that the end of life journey for pop was nearly done. Ruthanne and I arrived late Thursday night and I decided to stay with pop while Ruthanne went home with my brother and sister-in-law.
On Friday morning my sisters did arrive … and the moment that the two of them walked into pop’s room it seemed that the time had come for him to go.
Without a groan, a sigh, a gurgle or a moan … my dad made his way to his eternal home.
From the moment, dad left us, I had an overwhelming sense of the magnificent love of God.
We know that in times of pain and loss, the loving presence of the Lord comes near. This is the promise of the Father to us.
However, the truth is that in the moment it seemed like more than that … and what I realized is this.
The Lingering Love Of God … This Is What Matters Most In Difficult Times!
My dad leaned into the love of God … for all the right reasons. He knew that it was the perfect love of God that made life complete.
He knew the truth about the love of God …
▪ the promise that His love endures forever (I Chronicles 16:34)
▪ the profound assurance that nothing can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:35)
▪ the powerful opportunity to come to know just how wide and long and high and deep the love of God really is (Ephesians 3:18)
These truths are the anchor for our souls and they articulate to us the potential of the love of God … a love freely given, secured by the harsh sacrifice of His Son, so that whoever would believe in Him would not perish, but have eternal life.
Pop knew that we were to devote ourselves to being rooted and established in the love of God … and to put it on full display in every way. He leaned into these things … and so should we.
The Lingering Love Of God … This Is What Matters Most In Difficult Times!
One of the songs that pop really loved captures all of this for us.
This song, “The Love Of God”, is rich in content and provides a context for us that can help us grasp the beauty and the majesty of the love of God.
The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell
It goes beyond the highest star
And reaches to the lowest hell
The guilty pair bowed down with care
God gave His Son to win
His erring child He reconciled
And pardoned from his sin
Could we with ink the ocean fill
And were the skies of parchment made
Were every stalk on earth a quill
And every man a scribe by trade
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry _
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints’ and angels’ song_
The Lingering Love Of God … This Is What Matters Most In Difficult Times!
In every season and situation, we can lean into the love of God.
Pop made that a lifelong commitment to doing this and I intend to do the same.
Will you join me?