My Dad

Monday we found out Dad has diabetes, and that it was the cause of the palsy. So now he’s in the middle of changing his diet to help manage the diabetes.

I was thinking this week how much my Dad resembles Job. First of all, he was born six weeks pre-mature and wasn’t supposed to live. He pulled through that and then in college he had some heart trouble. I’m afraid I’m a little sketchy on the details, since I wasn’t born yet, but I do know he had to drop out of college for a year because of it. Then about 15 years ago he was diagnosed with ALS, a terminal illness, until he was healed from that (or mis-diagnosed according to the doctors). Now he has diabetes. And through it all, he’s not only remained faithful, but he never stopped ministering. Even when he could barely walk, or talk, he was ministering to hurting people. He regularly visited other people with ALS while he was still diagnosed with it. He got involved with a drug and alcohol recovery group and was regularly involved in those people’s lives. And when he couldn’t get out of the house he was online spreading the gospel to 52 different countries. More than once, I remember someone visiting him from out of town. They came to meet him because he introduced them to Jesus.

I imagine the accuser going before God, and God says, “Have you considered my servant Ron? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”

“Skin for skin!” Satan replies. “A man will give all he has for his own life. But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

The LORD says to Satan, “Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.”

And so he does, time and again, but still Dad remains faithful.