June 14 is my late father's birthday. He should had been 71 years old if he were still alive today. It is my family's practice to visit him on his birthday, to celebrate and to give him simple gifts which he greatly appreciated.
Things are really different now in the house. This year, there's only my mother to welcome us home. My mother who has openly cried to say how much she misses my father. Looking at my mother's very frail body, it was so hard to leave her behind yet she is so adamant to stay in the house where we grew up. Clinging on the memories of so many wonderful years of being together, recalling our so many ups and downs ...
As I laid down on my father's death bed, I can almost hear my father's voice telling me that life has to go on..that he had a well lived life...that he felt the love of his sons and daughters, in laws and grandchildren..that he was sure that mother will be well taken care of...that someday we will all be together in our ultimate destination... and that there is no more pain, no more tears in the place where he is now....
With these thoughts in mind, I now say, Kudos! Tatay .... you had fufilled your mission on earth with flying colors... I couldn't thank God enough for giving you to me as my father...because God gave me the best...and I believe that you had already ascended to heaven (just like Jun, my brother when he died two years earlier)
Ascended
We are . . . well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. – 2 Corinthians 5:8
Joseph Parker (1830-1902) was a beloved English preacher. When his wife died, he didn’t have the customary wording inscribed on her gravestone. Instead of the word died followed by the date of her death, he chose the word ascended.
Parker found great comfort in being reminded that though his wife’s body had been placed in the grave, the "real" Mrs. Parker had been transported to heaven and into the presence of her Savior. When Parker himself died, his friends made sure that his gravestone read:
ASCENDED NOVEMBER 28, 1902
When a believing loved one dies, or when we ourselves face the process of dying, there’s great comfort in the fact that "to be absent from the body" is "to be present with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:8).
Death for us is not a dark journey into the unknown. It is not a lonely walk into a strange and friendless place. Rather, it is a glorious transition from the trials of earth into the joys of heaven, where we will be reunited with our loved ones in Christ who have gone before. Best of all, we will enjoy the presence of our Lord forever.
Yes, when a believer dies, the body is buried but not the soul. It has ascended! – Richard De Haan
Oh, how blessed is the promise
When our spirit is set free:
To be absent from the body
Means to live, O Lord, with Thee! – Bosch
READ: 2 Corinthians 5:1-8
For the Christian, death is the doorway to Glory.
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