We all like to receive gifts. I’m thinking today of the gift my daddy gave my mother when I was a teenager at home.
From the time Daddy and Mama married, Daddy drank. It was all I didn’t like about Daddy when I was growing up. I loved Daddy, but I didn’t like his drinking.
Mama wanted to go to worship and take me, but she didn’t drive and Daddy didn’t want to go. She told me when I got my driver’s license she would buy us a car, and I could drive us to church. We looked forward to that time. At sixteen I got my license, and mama was true to her word. She bought us a car. I drove us to worship God at the Elba church of Christ. Daddy called us hypocrites and tried to discourage us.
Three years later Daddy got sick and was hospitalized. The doctor told him he had to give up drinking if he wanted to live. Daddy gave up his drinking and asked if he could go to worship with us the next Sunday. We wouldn’t have thought of telling him he couldn’t go with us. I remember the Sunday well. When the invitation was being given, I looked over and saw my Daddy walking down the church aisle. He confessed living in sin 30 years. I knew 20 of those years at that time. Daddy stopped drinking and smoking at the same time. He later became a Deacon in the church and was faithful until his death at 78 years of age.
The story is longer and more detailed than this, but my point is Daddy gave Mama the greatest gift he could have ever given her on that day. He gave her the peace of knowing that he was a Christian, and he faithfully served God the rest of his life.
I like to think about heaven and going there one day. I like to think about the people in the Bible who will be there, and what it will be like to talk with them. But, I look forward to seeing Mama and Daddy again. I look forward to seeing Mama’s parents and maybe all of her siblings.
Yes, Daddy gave mother a wonderful gift when he rededicated his life and gave up his sinful life for a far better one in Christ. I suppose there just couldn’t be a better gift to give anyone at anytime of the year.