Boldly

Four Years ago today I posted this on Facebook:

Last night between 10:15 and midnight Minnesota time I had a dream. I dreamed I went to see my dad at the Hospice care center but he wasn't there. I drove away and turned a corner and suddenly saw a wide white beach. I could see my dad at a distance...first in a wheelchair, then standing, and then taking off running, turning somersaults and doing cartwheels in the white sand. It was warm and sunny and he looked so happy.  

This morning during church I got a voice mail from my mom saying, He did it Claudia! He made it to heaven to see his mother for Mother's Day! He is rejoicing and so am I!"
She went on to explain that he died peacefully in his sleep last night at 9 pm their time... The same time I was having the dream about him turning cartwheels in the sand.  

I called my mom back immediately to see how she was and she said,"I'm delighted he is in heaven. He is free!" 

I'm not quite as strong as my mother, but I'm so glad I got to spend so much great time with him the last two weeks and I'm so privileged to have had such a kind, loving, gentle, compassionate earthly father. Enjoy your first day in heaven dad! Bet you're having a blast catching up with all your old friends!

As I look back on those weeks, I'm still grateful for the time we had together.  We listened to old hymns "Arise, My Soul Arise" and "And, Can It Be" were the two he wanted to listen to over and over again.

My dad was a timid man, soft-spoken, introverted, shy even.   He had a wicked good sense of humor though, so when he did speak we listened.

But it brought tears to my eyes those weeks four years ago and it still does today, that one of the songs he wanted to hear in his last days of life has these words:

Bold I approach the eternal throne,And claim the crown,Through Christ, my own

My dad was such a godly man.  and I just love it that he KNEW that he would be transformed into one who could boldly approach the throne of the Almighty God.