I Sat Next To Your Dad Today

I went to church with my wife today as usual.  It was Thanksgiving Sunday in Canada (a whole month and a week before our American friends celebrate it because Canada’s harvest periods are generally earlier than those in the United States).

As I have come to expect in the large evangelical church we attend, the worship music stirred my soul as we sang about our God.  Today it focused on His faithfulness.  The message focused on our thankfulness.  But that’s not what drove me to my laptop this time to pen these words I wanted to share with you.

You see, before the service began, we took our usual place next to a well-dressed elderly gentleman that has always said ‘hello’ to us and shook our hand.  Today was no exception.  Next to him was a lady, not related, with whom he started to share how, for whatever reason, his children who are not church attenders would not be able to spend any time with him as they were all busy with various activities – none of which related to the original reasons our Canadian Parliament and the American Congress set aside one day a year for those living in our great countries with our families, to give “thanks” to the Creator for all His blessings.

My heart broke and tears came to my eyes as I heard him say “They say they wish they could be with me, they wish they could make me happy but somehow there’s no time.”  And, “If they really wanted to make me happy, why not on a day like this or even Easter or Christmas, why not come to church with me?”  I could hear his voice break doing all he could to hold back his own tears.

My heart broke again and even more tears came to my eyes as I realized that while I was in church alone with my wife today, I knew all three of my children, their spouses, and my five grandchildren were in their respective churches in their own communities.  I knew that later in the day I would be having dinner with those that were within driving distance and a real warm phone call from those that were not.

I don’t know what your dad ended up doing today.  He had muttered that he had some kind of plans, and although they didn’t sound too sure to me, I left him with those.  But I know one thing; he would rather have been with you!  Oh well, Christmas is coming.

[Are you looking for a speaker at your church, your club, school, or organization? Ken is available to preach, teach, challenge, and/or motivate. Please contact us.]

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