Faith Through the Journey

It’s been 13 years since my dad went to be with Jesus. The lives of his family changed that day, with his physical presence no longer available by phone, e-mail or visits. We lost a great adviser and felt that loss very keenly. But, anyone who knew Bob Whitcomb knows that he was never at a loss for words, whether those words were humorous or filled with the wisdom he had gained over his years of walking with the Lord.

Thinking about Dad was painful for some time, until I realized that the best way to honor my dad’s memory was to live in the way he taught us to live. He taught us to love God, love our families, work hard and serve others. The older I get, the more I appreciate all that he did teach us by both words and his own example. Much of my parenting has drawn upon Dad’s loving wisdom and discipline, and now that I’m a grandparent, I understand what he meant when he said that if he’d known how much fun grandchildren were, he would have had them first! He would have loved his now 7 great-grandchildren, watching his grandchildren become parents.

This year I had the privilege of going to Israel, and throughout the entire time there my dad was in my thoughts. He was a great Bible teacher, and the places we saw were the very ones he taught about for so many years. One of Dad’s “hobbies” was building anything from an entire house to picture frames, and he would have found the ancient architecture in Israel fascinating. He would have been trying the whole time to figure out exactly how they constructed things!

Our last stop on our tour of Israel was the Garden Tomb, the place where Jesus may well have been buried and from where he was raised from the dead. We shared communion there, and then we began to sing “Because He Lives”. I lost it then, overcome with the emotion of the week and the location, but also because that was sung at Dad’s funeral. Thinking about the words to that song reminded me again, especially there, that the resurrection of Jesus was the reason we have hope of being in heaven. Dad is already there because He believed that Jesus not only died for his sins, but that He was raised from the dead and is even now preparing a heavenly home for all who believe that most-important truth.

“Because He lives, I can face tomorrow; because He lives, all fear is gone! Because I know He holds the future, and life is worth the living just because He lives!”