Thinking of Dad

This is my favorite version of my favorite hymn (you can ignore the Little House on the Prairie video; I just like Amy Grant):



This is also a nice version and I like the pictures:



I discovered this hymn when my mother was sick with cancer 12 years ago. It helps me keep life in perspective; good or bad, God is still in control, and even when I don't understand why things happen, He does.

It is funny how rapidly life can change--for the worse or for the better--in just a few days. On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, my siblings and I were discussing, tentatively, funeral arrangements for my father. That's how sick he was. Yesterday, physical therapy had him sitting in a chair. He's alert, feeding himself, and he knows who we are (he has Alzheimer's, so that is always a blessing). There's even talk of him making it to a rehab hospital by the middle of next week where they can work aggressively to get him ambulatory.

These events have also illuminated, yet again, the importance of our relationships with those we love best and often take for granted. It's easy during the hustle and bustle of Christmas to forget that the most important thing you do is to be together and enjoy each other. For the last 12 years (since my mother's death), my sometimes rocky relationship with my father has come to define the boundaries of my world. There are things my husband and I might have done but chose not to because I wanted to be here for my dad. There are also other things I chose to do for the same reasons. Regardless of what happens in the future, I can cherish what we've had in the past.