Dad and Noah

This picture is precious to me for several reasons.  First, it is the only photo that I know that pictures my dad with my son.  Second, it is a picture of the two closest “guys” in my life. 

My dad would not live another year after this was taken.  We buried my father on my son’s first birthday.  God’s sovereignty is sweetly mysterious.  I don’t know why my boy will not have a close earthly relationship with my dad.  They would have, I am sure, been unbelievably close.  My dad taught me more about Christ at every level than any other human being I know.  I could talk to my father about anything, and did.  In a word, I had the fullest relationship with a dad any son could have, and then I had a son of my own.  I have wanted to ask my dad, “Hey dad, do you ever feel this way when I did this?” just to hear his reaction. 

I vividly remember when my dad’s dad died, and what he went through because they were so close.  On and on I could go, but the day my dad died, I stopped being a son and concentrated all my energies on being a father.  Or I like to say it this way, “The son became a father when the father met the Son”.  And so on my boy’s third birthday, I am thankful for his life, his future faith, and without waxing sloppy sentimentalism, he is as far as any human being can be, my everything.  From a long line of faithful men who loved their God and loved their sons much love, my son.