Turning Back Time

Well I’m Keith Stevens. Really glad you're listening today as we talk about nurturing and investing in relationships, I can’t help but think of the story of John.  John is in his late 50’s and recently invited his dad to come live with he  and his wife. And his dad is in his 80’s. When John was a boy, his dad always worked. He wasn’t bad man, but he just always worked.  He never taught me to fish or to play baseball or to chop wood.  I remember my dad, he used to always chop wood in the back yard and bring in logs for the fires in the winter, and we’d have fires but I never spent much time with him preparing them. John said he felt like there was a void in his life, because he felt like his dad was always gone.  His dad is now 80 and he’s still strong. And over the years they’ve had time to now to spend together and John said he felt like a little boy again.  That he was sitting in the backyard watching his now eighty year old dad chop wood, and his dad said, “hey john come on over here.  Let me teach you how to chop wood, and how to hold the axe, and together, they chopped a pile of wood to bring in for an early November fire that warmed the house.  And John told me with tears running down his face, “Keith, I thought I should have had all this experience when I was seven or eight years old, but God has now restored to me all the years that were stolen.”  

As they sat by that fire, John’s dad looked at his son, now almost 60 years old, and said, “thank you son; thank you for giving me the best day of my life.”  John’s dad passed away not too long ago.  But John was able to let him go,  because what he thought he missed, God restored in his life. And maybe,  God wants to do the same for you too.