30 Days of Thanks - 5

This morning I attended the Celebration of Life service for a dear friend's dad who passed away this week at only the age of 66.  Much about him reminded me of my own dad, including the fact that he was a former military man, and just like at my dad's funeral, they played 'Taps' and did the flag ceremony.  I lost it completely when our friend Scott spoke at the service, and again when they handed the perfectly and properly folded flag to the widow.  It's hard to bury a parent...and especially at such a young age.  I wish that neither I, nor several of my friends, would have had to experience it.  But, we did, and God has seen each of us through it.

So, then...what does this have to do with Thankfulness??  Well, I am thankful for all that is the Hope of Salvation.  Both my dad and Scott's dad were men who trusted their lives, heart and soul, to Jesus and so I know that we, who are still here, missing our dads and re-adjusting (yes, even still for me, 5 years later) to the hole in our lives that our dear dads left, will be able to be reunited and have all of eternity to spend together, never to be separated by pain or death again. 

I'm rejoicing and smiling at the thought that maybe Dad and Wayne are hanging out in heaven right now, swapping trucking stories, telling jokes or...having a smoke?  No, no...probably not...unless there are some kind of healthy-for-you cigarettes in heaven that are more akin to a chocolate fix than a nicotine one...?? Wow...that got really weird and off-track...but I kinda think these two would have laughed.  Looking forward to laughing with them again one day.  That is the Hope of Salvation that I am thankful for today.