Brothers, Part 2, Life

Today my oldest brother called me during lunch and asked if he could come to see me. When he arrived he told me that he had found a letter at my Mother's house while going through our dad's papers. It was a letter that Dad wrote to all three of us brothers in June, 1972 and never sent us. Dad died in 1985. Bob handed me the letter and I read it slowly and emotionally. My Dad was speaking to me after all these years. In the letter he spoke of how proud he was of us and how talented he thought we were. He challenged us, boys, to become elders in our church someday. He retired from work in 1972, heart trouble caused by a massive heart attack four years earlier had altered his life. He talked about his prayers for us and how when he was in the hospital with that first attack, he promised that if the LORD would extend his life, he would work to spread the word. This is a portion of that letter:

"When I was in the hospital about four years ago, not knowing if I would recover or not, I promised my LORD that if HE would allow me to live that I would do my best to fit myself for service in HIS Kingdom. So you see I have so much to be thankful for and much to do to keep my promise. I don't want you to wait for something like this to happen to show you the necessity of doing more and more for the cause of Christ and The Church. I am a firm believer in Phil. 4:13- I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST THAT STRENGTHENS ME."

My Dad was an Elder for at least 20 years. One Wednesday night, after teaching the adult class at church, he just slumped over the speaker's stand and left this world.

It was hard to read that letter, but I will cherish it. The hard part was that like the movie, "Brothers", we brothers went different ways. One brother attends church now and then and the other has not been in church in years, even though in five years after this letter, he was a full time minister for a while. On the other hand, I did become an Elder, not because of a letter, but because of my Dad's life.

I am not bragging or saying that I won or something, I am saying that letter would have killed me if I had not taken a "less travelled road". I didn't know what to say to my brother and he was taking the letter hard. He asked if it should be sent to our brother in Florida and I said, "He wrote it to all of us and we all should read it."

I think my Dad is still doing the work of his LORD.

Dad was 55 when he wrote this letter and I have passed that point. I see the need for a letter like this. I want my children to read his message so that they will know their Grand-Dad and their legacy.

This letter will speak to me for quite a while.