Happy Birthday Dad

As I sit here thinking about you, I want you to know how much I love you.

I want you to know how proud I am of you! We are all blessed with life, though we are not all blessed with wealth - and I know you struggled within your heart because you couldn’t give us the things you dreamed of.

But, I want you to know that what you gave me was worth more than all the gold in the world.

You made an honest living. You worked hard every day to keep a roof over our heads and food in our bellies.

You literally worked your fingers to the bone. I remember how they bled and how as a child I felt sad that you were hurt.

You weren’t perfect Dad, but as the quote goes… “You were perfectly imperfect!”

I know if you were here now, I wouldn’t be where I am. I wouldn’t be worrying about where I’d be living tomorrow or the next day. I wouldn’t be worrying about nourishment for my body, or that cold glass of milk…

But here I am. So, as I do believe - because you had a heart of gold -  that you are with God in heaven; will you please put in a word for me (because sometimes I think He can’t hear me).

It just dawned on me that you were only 5 1/2 years older than I am today when you left us.

Dad, you were gone too soon from our lives...

I miss you Dad.

The Last Judgement

I was thinking about my own mortality today - and Heaven and Hell.

Not long ago, I watched a show on TBN and I believe it was Kirk Cameron that said something to the effect -

Isn’t it better to believe in God and if it turns out not to be true, then you have lost nothing?
If God is real, and you have not believed in Him and lived as a Christian - then you lose everything.

Have you ever heard of the so-called urban legend of the “Sounds of Hell”? If not, I'll leave the task of finding it to you - as I don't particularly want it here on my blog.

However, the story is that supposedly a group of geologists drilled a hole deep in the crust of the earth and claimed that they heard human screams. They claimed  they could hear thousands, or possibly millions of suffering souls that had been condemned to Hell.

I first heard the recording in 2004 and it terrified me. As a Christian, I believe what the Bible tells me about Hell, and those ’Screams from Hell’ sounded real to me!

It has been said that  Jacques Costeau, the underwater explorer, quit deep sea diving  before he died because he had heard the sounds of people screaming in one of the underwater caves he was exploring.
And apparently one of his men, who was in a diving bell in the Bermuda Triangle, also had a similar experience. When he recovered from a state of shock, he told the crew that he had heard horrible screams of people in pain.

Whether or not the story from Russia was true; or whether or not Costeau or his crew mate heard what they claimed - if you are Christian then you believe that Hell is real.

Michelangelo’s ‘Last Judgment’ which is painted on the Sistine Chapel, depicts the judgment day, like nothing else I have seen.

In the center of the painting is the figure, who represents Christ - deciding the fate of mankind. With arms raised, he sends a few to heaven and the rest of the human race into Hell.

For those men blessed with eternal life in that presence of God it is a time of pure joy.
For those men damned to an eternal life in Hell, it is the most terrifying moment of their lives.


If you look under the figure that depicts Christ - towards the right of the painting, you see the figure of a man covering one eye with his hand, and being pulled by demons into Hell. If you study him, you can see the fear upon his face and in his eye as he realizes his eternal fate.






I hope I never have to face that moment.

The Perfect Heart

Yesterday I got some news. Sometimes I wonder how much more bad news this old heart can take. As I sat thinking about the pain in my broken heart, I remembered this story I read a few years ago -actually when I first got on the Internet back in 2000. It took me a while to find it yesterday but here is that wonderful story.

One day a man was standing in the middle of the town proclaiming that he had the most Beautiful Heart in the whole valley. A large crowd gathered and they all agreed that his heart was... for it was perfect.
There was not a mark or flaw in it.
Yes, they all agreed... it truly was the most Beautiful Heart they had ever seen.
The man was proud and boasted more loudly about his Beautiful Heart.

Suddenly a man appeared in front of the crowd and said, "Why your Heart is not nearly as Beautiful as mine."

The crowd and the young man looked at the old man's Heart.

It was beating strongly, but full of scars. It had places and pieces that had been removed and other pieces put in, but they did not fit quite right and there where several jagged edges.
In fact, in some places there were deep gouges where pieces were missing.

The people stared - how can he say his Heart is more beautiful, they thought?
The young man looked at the old man's Heart and saw it's state and laughed. "You must be crazy" he said.

"Compare your Heart with mine, mine is perfect and yours is a mess of scars and tears".

"Yes", said the old man, "yours is perfect looking but I would never trade with you see, every scar represents a person whom I have given my Love. I tear out a piece of my Heart and give it to them, and often they gave me a piece of their Heart where the empty place was in my Heart, but because the pieces are not exact...

I have some edges, which I cherish, because they remind me of the Love we shared.

Sometimes I've given pieces of my Heart away and the other person hasn't returned a piece of theirs to me. These are the empty gouges - giving Love is taking a chance.

Although they are painful, they stay open, reminding me of the Love I have for these people. I hope someday they may return and fill the space I have waiting. So now do you know what True Beauty is?"

The young man stood silently with tears running down his cheeks. He walked up to the old man, reached into his perfect young Beautiful Heart and ripped a piece out and offered it to the old man with trembling hands.

The old man took his offering of his Heart and then he took a piece from his old scarred Heart and placed it in the young man's Heart. It fit... but not perfectly, as there where some jagged edges.

The young man looked at his Heart - not perfect any more but more Beautiful than ever with the love from the old man's Heart flowing into his. They embraced and walked away side by side.