"18 Again" and Remembering my Father

It rained today...

The storm clouds rolled in...
thunder rumbled, through the deep black billowing clouds...The wind began to lift the leaves... and a few gave way to take their resting place in the soil...
As the rain began to gently fall in the summer breeze..I quietly thought of my father..

Thirty-one years ago today, he left this earth for a 'land that is fairer than day'. He surprised us by leaving so suddenly.

I remember the day so clearly...

I was a fresh-faced student in a small  Bible college in Tennessee . Our college president..called me out of class.
I remember following him down a long hallway, trailing behind his long steady strides....and then descending slowly and deliberately down a circular marble staircase....
He never spoke a word.
Even though, he seemed to walk gently...I was apprehensive, I didn't understand...

And then he told me,.. my mama wanted to speak with me,... 
something was dreadfully wrong....as he handed me the telephone, my fears were confirmed,
I knew...in my heart...I knew,....it was either one of two people.
I was right in that,....It was my dad...In one moment of time, my life changed in an instant.

So many memories still cling to the corners of my mind,...while others are fading and as elusive as the leaves blowing in the wind...

Now, I am older ...
Now I remember ...bits and pieces of the person I once was....

Of the person I still am....of the person I have become...
I am thankful for my father...
I am thankful that I had eighteen years with him.
I am thankful He knew Jesus as his Savior.

The dark clouds that once enveloped me have given way to sunshine...
For now I know,.... in the same amount of time it took my life to change,... my father's life changed in an instant as well...He moved ever so quickly from this life unto glory...

I rest well tonight..knowing that one day, I will see him again...


1 Corinthians 15:51,52
"Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed , in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.
For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed."