Thursday, August 29, 2013

this glimpse


Last week I saw dad.  I didn't recognize him immediately.  It wasn't because I hadn't seen him in a while, but because he had changed.  His face was leaner and had been darkened by the sun.  He was younger but still had his salt and peppered hair, white temples.  He could've been a movie star from Hollywood's golden era.  Who was this handsome and rugged fellow?  Why did he approach me?  He knew me from the start.  It wasn't until he smiled.  There was no doubt about him when he smiled.

It didn't seem to me that I was looking at a glorified body ~ I don't know what a glorified body looks like.  I now imagine a glorified body is the body that we would have had if it hadn't been for the fall of man.  Dad looked to me to be a man freed from all physical limits and boundaries of his old flesh and of the fallen world he left behind.

He was standing there looking straight at me.  His countenance was surprising, his soul was familiar but he was a different man.  He was strong, he was fit and eternal.
His good looking and slightly leathered face told of a man who lived outside beneath the sun, who constantly travels ~ an explorer.  Since he left us, he has been exploring the heavens without end. It made sense to me after thinking about it.  I guess if I had spent all my days on Earth on crutches and in a wheelchair, I would be a traveling man too.  I had always wanted to walk with dad, side by side.  I knew that the next time I'd see him, I would be able to.  We will walk together one of these days.  I am now not sure I would be able to keep up with him.

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