My father always wanted to be a cowboy. Last week, someone gave me this horseshoe cross as a Christmas gift. So, of course, I had to message her and say, “just what I always wanted!” So, I have told many of y’all this before, but my father always wanted to be a cowboy. He subscribed to Appaloosa News and we would go to the annual Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver every January. So the horseshoe art is especially meaningful to me, and that it evokes a cross, as well, further conjures the memory of my dad because he was a beautiful example of one who Trusts.
My dad was in a work-related accident that left him covered in the hot tar that exploded from the tanker he was filling. Over 65% of his body sustained 2nd and 3rd degree burns wreaking havoc on his internal organs, as you might imagine. But when he was taken to hospital and as he was being wheeled in, a nurse later told my mom, he was singing hymns. And, when my mom visited him, his face swollen and burned, he looked at her and said, “my lips are burning for you.”
This man knew the truth of who is was and lived the trust he had in a God who came to live among us: Emmanuel. Now, my dad was certainly not a perfect person. And it is a truism that everyone is sainted in the memory of those who mourn them. But isn’t it right that this is so? For one, the person who has died now sees Jesus face-to-face and is counted among the saints who bear witness to God in that Great Cloud of Witnesses.
And if we remember the acts of faith, the example of what it means to Trust a truth that we are made in God’s image and this God came to live among us, entering our space and time in the most vulnerable state; God the Creator of everything came in the form of an itty bitty of a baby – this one whom we claim to celebrate on the 25th. I’m grateful to Christy and Laurie (and all the GTGT peeps) who alerted me to this video. It is a lovely reminder to us where our focus must be …
Continue reading . . .
