167. A TRIBUTE TO A FRIEND

A friend died on Wednesday, August 10, 2016, ending a seven month bout with cancer.  He was only 68 years old.  One of his daughters wrote a tribute to him on Facebook, published on Sunday, August 14th.  It began, "We laid my Dad to rest yesterday."  The tribute continued with special memories of her dad and the loving things he did for the family.  The tribute ended with ...

Dad was a great man of faith. He was ready to go home and be with Jesus. I, however, was not ready for him to go. Mom and my brother and sisters were not ready. The grandkids were not ready. We all love him and miss him so very, very much. I'm not really sure where to go from here, but I know that Dad would want us to keep walking forward and do something good with our lives. My personal goal is to try and become the person that my Dad already thought I was.
RIP Daddy. See you on the other side.

The last sentence, "...become the person that my Dad already thought I was," is profound, because that is a description of God the Father for us.  

First, it is obvious that all fathers would want to be like this - a model of God the Father for our wife and children.  That is what the family from out of a God-ordained marriage covenant is all about (Eph. 5:22-32). 

But, more, it describes one relationship of one human father that is everything to one family, representing a tiny glimpse of an entire universe of fulfillment of the foreordained plan of God, made before time began and going forward into eternity.

When we choose God's plan and remain faithful, we glorify God, we are transformed into His true righteousness and holiness (Rom. 12:1-2; 2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10), and we bear witness to the world of the manifold wisdom of God (Eph. 3:10).

God blotted out our sins (Col. 2:3-13-15) so we could be unencumbered to keep eyes on Jesus and run the race before us (Heb. 12:1-2).  Our sins from the shortcomings of the human nature, trying in the flesh to be like God, have been removed so that we can grow by the control of the spiritual nature into the fullness of Jesus Christ (Eph. 4:12-16).

Like the daughter's tribute to her Dad, by the grace of God in accordance with His foreordained plan, we yield to the power of transformation so that we can become the person in the earthly realms that God has predestined us to be in Christ (Eph.1:4) and be the person that He has declared we already are -- seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Eph. 2:6). 

Thank you, Rex, for leaving such an eternal endowment for the future of your family and for an example of how it is supposed to be done.