photo taken on December 30, 2006 well, i am going to attempt to post about this. when talking to people face to face i do fine with this, but when i am alone at home trying to type... not so much.
as you know my dad was killed on saturday, december 30. two men exited off the highway and ran through a stop sign going at least 40 mph. they did not attemp to use their breaks, but hit my dad full force on the driver's side fender/door. my dad suffered an aortic transection (for those of you not in the medical field - his aorta basically severed in half) due to blunt chest trauma. upon arrival of the paramedics, he was already without a pulse and i like to think already at perfect peace!
i don't really want to dwell too much on the subject of the accident, but do want to add one more thing. this man, gregorio rodriguez, is in jail at this time and has been charged with vehicular homicide. pray for us as we must forgive this man. pray for this man as we do not know how the Lord might use this in his life. i'm sure it was not his intent to kill a man, but that is what happened and he will have to live with that knowledge... i cannot imagine!
i titled this post "the sovereignty of God" for a reason. i know that the Lord knew that december 30, 2006, was the day he would take my dad from this wretched world. i am just so baffled by this. oh to just be able to grasp a tiny bit of understanding of the sovereignty of God! never would i wish my dad back on this earth, but the pain of not having him is so tremendous. what God intends to do with this incident, i may never know while on this earth, but i trust that something mighty is being done!
there were over 500 people at the funeral. by looking at the guest books, we estimate that about 200 of those people were chapel friends. that leaves 300 people from the community and dad's business friends. 300 people who may have never heard the truth about Salvation, heard it proclaimed cleary as the Lord spoke through Josh! they heard of the testimony of my dad, which they had already seen lived out in his life. it was presented to them that my dad was not in heaven because he was a good man. he is in heaven because he accepted the free gift of salvation through Christ. he is in heaven because Christ bore my dad's sins on the cross so that my dad might have eternal life! i'm not sure what people thought about someone, especially his son-in-law standing up and saying that my dad was a sinner and that he was not good in and of himself. i hope that it pricked their hearts and that they were convicted.
the last week with my dad was a gift straight from the Lord. my dad was able to have the entire week off to just relax (as much as he would) and to enjoy his family. we spent alot of time with him. we raced remote controlled cars and went to basketball games. on the day he died we had spent part of the day with him shooting guns. i had brought along my camera because i thought it would make a fun blog post. i don't think it was just coincidence that i brought my camera. now i have pictures of us with my dad on our last day! the Lord is so kind. He knew this was the day and he prepared us. i am so thankful to have no regrets. i knew my dad loved me and he knew i loved him. there was no 'unfinished business' between us and now i can have joy in his memory. the Lord had truly prepared us. even though it hurts, we have the blessings and the grace of the Lord to help us though.
i just want to end by praising the Lord for all that He has done through this and all that He will continue to do! thank you Lord for knowing our weaknesses and not abandoning us in our times of need...
'Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.'
Psalm 116:15
'For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.'
Philippians 1:21
as you know my dad was killed on saturday, december 30. two men exited off the highway and ran through a stop sign going at least 40 mph. they did not attemp to use their breaks, but hit my dad full force on the driver's side fender/door. my dad suffered an aortic transection (for those of you not in the medical field - his aorta basically severed in half) due to blunt chest trauma. upon arrival of the paramedics, he was already without a pulse and i like to think already at perfect peace!
i don't really want to dwell too much on the subject of the accident, but do want to add one more thing. this man, gregorio rodriguez, is in jail at this time and has been charged with vehicular homicide. pray for us as we must forgive this man. pray for this man as we do not know how the Lord might use this in his life. i'm sure it was not his intent to kill a man, but that is what happened and he will have to live with that knowledge... i cannot imagine!
i titled this post "the sovereignty of God" for a reason. i know that the Lord knew that december 30, 2006, was the day he would take my dad from this wretched world. i am just so baffled by this. oh to just be able to grasp a tiny bit of understanding of the sovereignty of God! never would i wish my dad back on this earth, but the pain of not having him is so tremendous. what God intends to do with this incident, i may never know while on this earth, but i trust that something mighty is being done!
there were over 500 people at the funeral. by looking at the guest books, we estimate that about 200 of those people were chapel friends. that leaves 300 people from the community and dad's business friends. 300 people who may have never heard the truth about Salvation, heard it proclaimed cleary as the Lord spoke through Josh! they heard of the testimony of my dad, which they had already seen lived out in his life. it was presented to them that my dad was not in heaven because he was a good man. he is in heaven because he accepted the free gift of salvation through Christ. he is in heaven because Christ bore my dad's sins on the cross so that my dad might have eternal life! i'm not sure what people thought about someone, especially his son-in-law standing up and saying that my dad was a sinner and that he was not good in and of himself. i hope that it pricked their hearts and that they were convicted.
the last week with my dad was a gift straight from the Lord. my dad was able to have the entire week off to just relax (as much as he would) and to enjoy his family. we spent alot of time with him. we raced remote controlled cars and went to basketball games. on the day he died we had spent part of the day with him shooting guns. i had brought along my camera because i thought it would make a fun blog post. i don't think it was just coincidence that i brought my camera. now i have pictures of us with my dad on our last day! the Lord is so kind. He knew this was the day and he prepared us. i am so thankful to have no regrets. i knew my dad loved me and he knew i loved him. there was no 'unfinished business' between us and now i can have joy in his memory. the Lord had truly prepared us. even though it hurts, we have the blessings and the grace of the Lord to help us though.
i just want to end by praising the Lord for all that He has done through this and all that He will continue to do! thank you Lord for knowing our weaknesses and not abandoning us in our times of need...
'Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.'
Psalm 116:15
'For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.'
Philippians 1:21
4 comments:
Grace and I love you and your family, and I wish there was something I could do to help take away you and your family’s pain. How true it is that the lord is soveren, how grate it was to have those 300 + people hear the gospel in a way that could really hit home and be presented so clearly. Just the way Randy would have wanted it.
With love and prayers,
Brandon Powell
Thanks for sharing all that, Brooke. All of this DOES seem incredibly hard to bear, but we're glad to hear that you are trusting in the Lord. It is amazing to hear what a great week you had with your dad before he died. How good of the Lord to give you those memories!
We're still praying for you!
the old man and the new man are certainly doing battle. i have to CHOOSE to trust the Lord almost every minute. i have found myself having to confess outloud that i know the thoughts i am having are from my flesh and are lies. i have to confess outloud that i believe the Lord's ways are good and right and that i trust him. this inward battle is greater than one i have ever experienced before...
I can believe that...and thanks for being real. We're human after all, and it's the Lord's work in our lives that makes the difference, that gives us the power to choose to believe the truth. I have been praying for you, Brooke, that the Lord would give you the strength to deal with this.
We were studying Ephesians 3 tonight in Bible study, and we talked about Paul's attitude when he was in prison in Rome and how the Lord revealed to him the mystery of the church. One of the girls shared that she has noticed in her own life that it is always after periods of suffering that the Lord reveals Himself to her in a new way. I immediately thought of you, and my prayer is that this will be true for you too.
Love to you,
Rachel
Post a Comment