Missing Dad on Fater's Day

 If like me you had a father with whom you had a loving relationship during your life, then tomorrow celebrating Father's Day may be hard for those whose fathers have passed on.

Oh, I know I will see him one day and at this point in my life, it is getting closer to that time.

Still, it will be a day when I will miss him. And yet, as he has been gone for almost 17 years, it will be a bit easier.

For those whose grief is still very strong for your father, God can give you something that you most need during this difficult day.

Like He did for the lady in the story below. Read on:

Mysterious Ways: The Music Box by Barbara WomerPosted in Coping With Grief, Sep 3, 2013

The music box was a lovely gift from my sister, Sue. Made of wood, sculpted and painted to look like a small country church, complete with stained glass windows and a little golden church bell tucked inside the steeple. It reminded me of the house of worship in our small town, the one that stood at the center of my father’s life before he passed away. It had been three years since he died, but Sue must have known I was still missing him. I turned the key and cried upon hearing the first three, heartfelt notes. “Amazing Grace,” Dad’s favorite song.

Ask anyone in town what they remember most about my dad, and they’ll tell you in a flash. “Every Sunday he rang the steeple bell, inviting all of us into church,” they’ll say. And then they’ll mention “Amazing Grace.” Dad led the song selection on Sundays, and I can’t remember a time he didn’t include it.

Dad had a deep, sonorous voice, and it soared above all others when he sang, “and saved a wretch like me…” Even after the service he’d still hum the tune while he tidied up the sanctuary or mowed the church lawn.

I’d been thinking a lot about Dad lately. When I passed the church, heard the peal of its bells or, during Sunday service, heard the opening notes to his song, I would get emotional all over again. Dad had always been there for me. When I was a child, he soothed my little-girl fear of the dark; later, he paid for my years in nursing school. I wished he could still be with my sister and me now.

That’s why I was touched when the deliveryman knocked on the door, bearing Sue’s gift. The last notes of "Amazing Grace" trickled out, and I immediately called my sister to thank her. “You don’t know how much I needed this,” I said.

“I got a feeling that a music box would cheer you up,” Sue said.  “I called a shop to ask if they had any shaped like churches, and told the shopkeeper to send the one he liked best.”

“You mean you never saw it? You don’t know the song it plays?” I asked.

“No,” she answered. “What does it play?”

I told her. Now it was Sue’s turn to cry.

💕💕💕

For sure, tomorrow won't be an easy day for many people that had lost a beloved father to death. Even so we can rejoyce and be glad that if he knew Jesus, he is there with Him now and it is only a matter of time when our father will meet us at the gate of heaven's entrance, ready to take us in his arms again.

Tomorrow I will think of him often during the day. But I am also thankful that our kids will be here to help celebrate the day with their own dad. At least two of them will be as the others live out of state. 

And so for those of you that will be missing your dads, remember the memories you had with him and know that God's grace will get you through it.

Thanks for coming by. God bless