Sunday, September 18, 2016

Father's funeral

I shared these thoughts at my father's funeral:

I am sad because my dad liked to teach and I still have so much to learn. He offered wisdom, without judgement. He gave an example of love and service that is tough to follow. We would talk about things we had learned learned and he would often look for the principle. I would get lost in expressing some crazy engineering idea and he would simply listen. 

We would have liked to keep him here longer. But that isn’t really the point. We would have liked that he attend more baptisms and blessings and ballgames. We desire endless association with family. That is the deepest longing of our soul, to be together with family. Living together with our eternal Father in Heaven is eternal life. Our emotions sometimes get confused on that issue of association, we want here what can truly only be perfected in Heaven. It will come in time. 

Jesus broke the bands of death and the grave has no victory. As Elder Nelson said in April 2012 conference, it is part of God’s work that we live and die and that the Savior prepared the way. 

“If the body’s capacity for normal function, defense, repair, regulation and regeneration were to prevail without limit, life here would continue in perpetuity. Yes, we would be stranded here on earth! Mercifully for us, our Creator provided for aging and other processes that would ultimately result in our physical death.”

Each pain, wound and illness is a reminder that our loving Father wants us home for his glory. There we will enjoy the association that we yearn for today. Elder Nelson quoted dad’s favorite scripture. My dad knew this.


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