My Mother's 3 Unanswered Questions. Part 3

(Read Parts 1 & 2 first)

Was Henry Ready to Meet His Maker?

When I was an adolescent my dad attended church with my mother on a regular basis. I think he was always an agnostic. Neither an atheist nor Christian, mind you. An agnostic. I think he “dabbled” in his own brand of religiosity when he joined the Masonic Lodge; at least for a season. However, after I involved myself in what he regarded as my personal “brand” of spirituality, more like Salvation, (I was made to understand that) my father rejected organized religion altogether. 

His manner of rejecting not me, but my persuasion, I suppose. 

When I felt “led” to attend a local evangelical college, daddy dragged me to his preacher for a pep talk of sorts, and, subsequently, to the office of my pastor’s wife; the Director of Nurses at a nearby nursing facility. The best that came of his less than successful attempt at changing God’s mind was a compromise; which saw me attending a local community college my freshman year. (Having done so, “all bets were off,” and I transferred to the afore-mentioned Christian college).

Over the years I attempted to impact my father with what, at that time, I judged to represent the Truth, i.e., Jesus Christ. His life. His atoning death. His burial and resurrection. His ascension into heaven. His future return for His saints.

At the time I believed that stuff. Five decades later

… I still do

Ultimately, my father aged, his health declined, and he experienced a stroke. And during his convalescence in the hospital my pastor, Elwood Kern, visited him on a regular basis. He didn’t have to. It wasn’t part and parcel of his job description, …but he did it anyway. 

And seemingly, without fail, when Pastor Kern finished his parting prayer with daddy, my father would muse,
  
"Preacher, you're the best pray-er I ever knew!"
 

When I was forced to reveal my plans to place him in a nursing facility, my dad reluctantly agreed to go.

They say “what goes around comes around.”

I admitted him, (and, subsequently, my mother) to 

…the same nursing home which he and I visited when we consulted with my pastor’s wife, i.e., the Director of Nurses for that facility; almost half a century earlier. And strangely enough, that room in which that somewhat contentious conference occurred, still bears the familiar old sign on the door.

… Director of Nurses


And, ultimately, my evangelical minister exercised a significant influence on each of my parents, and was involved in their memorial services.

(Can anything be more ironic)?

Over the course of the four years which transpired between my father’s and my mother’s deaths, mama would often ask me,

“Do you think your Daddy was ready to meet the Lord?”

And based on a similar question I put to my pastor, and his subsequent reply, I was able to provide some sort of responsible answer.

“Pastor, do you think my dad was ready to meet Jesus?”

To which he responded,

“Well, your dad was a good man. He was an inquisitive man. And as he and I interacted, and he affirmed my attempts to encourage and impact him… well, yes, we make salvation too complicated. Your dad gave every evidence of having made his peace with God.”

And as I often “encouraged (my mother) with these words” it seemed to give her some degree of peace.

“Yes, mama, I sincerely believe daddy made his peace with the Master, and I have no doubt whatever that you will see him again.”

The last words my mother ever spoke to my father on his death bed were,

“Henry, you were a baby when your mother was called up to heaven. Now you will have the opportunity to meet her.”

(and)

“I’ll see you. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Was my father ready to meet the Creator of the universe, the Giver of life, the Savior of the world, the Lover of men’s souls; He who will judge the quick and the dead?

Yes, I can say without hesitation, or fear of contradiction

…He was ready.

(Speaking of unanswered questions, I suppose 1 outta 3 ain't bad). 

By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from (Mc)Donald's Daily Diary. Vol. 28. Copyright pending

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