I wish you could have known Charles, Charlie to his wife. He passed on last year after a short illness, somehow the sixty-seven years had taken their toll and he was not able to fight the illness that struck him.
I wish I could have met Charlie’s parents. I wonder what they were like. We would have met them living in India in those early days, probably meeting every Sunday with other friends in church. The echo of the old English hymns against the backdrop of the sounds of the small north India village would have brought a smile to anyone’s face. Going home after church would have brought us a great place to play – large verandas to cruise in and out of the sun. Or it could have been that we would have met in Simla while on holidays. Anywhere we would have met his parents would have been a treat!
Solomon suggests that parents should “point your kids in the right direction – when they’re old they won’t be lost.” (Proverbs 22.6) True if they make that choice, not guaranteed if they do not.
Several of Solomon’s brothers pursued God’s other than their father’s. Yet there is something special when one meets the parents; for all sorts of reasons. Charlie was a kind, caring, and grace filled man who lived a life full of servant experiences. In the course of giving away mercy and acceptance he found himself wrapped in a wonderful blanket of relationships based on people who genuinely cared about him and things important to him.
I am not sure what my children say about me; history has yet to be fully written on this account. I do know that I care deeply about their experiences and happiness along the way. I would willingly give up everything if I could guarantee their happiness. I can’t but God did.
God is your parent and mine. We may not understand why, but he has done everything so we can the best of life. Today I have the opportunity to tell everyone just what that means.
