Goodbye to Dad.

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^“His lord said unto him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant;
thou hast been faithful over a few things,
I will make thee ruler over many things:
enter thou into the joy of thy lord.’”
Matthew 25:23 King James Version

Yesterday we buried my Dad.  As you can see from the photo, he had lived many years, 98 to be exact.  And He had worked hard for most of those 98 years.  He was a dairy farmer, getting up early every morning to milk 90 cows.  He fed, cleaned up, treated, nursed, milked and prodded those cows.  He hauled hay, planted crops, harvested corn, and trained berries.  He sweated and worried and planned and sweated some more.

Erwin Nickodemus

But most of all, he persevered.  I remember as a boy one day when my Dad got the stomach flu.  My grandpa was too old to milk and I was too young and so with a bottle of Pepto Bismol in the back pocket of his coveralls, Dad persevered.

But it wasn’t just in farming that he persevered.  In every endeavor that my dad pursued, whether it be at church, on the school board, on the fire district board, or especially at home in our family, my Dad persevered and was faithful.  Day in and day out, Dad was consistently a man of integrity and quiet faith.  He believed that because Jesus was his Friend and Lord, he could go on through all circumstances.  Dad was full of faith, even in the darkest of times.  That faith gave him courage to get up each morning and face whatever came that day.

Now Dad has gone to be with Jesus and for the first time in many years, he is without concerns or worries.  What the Lord gave him to do, he did faithfully, every day of his life.  And now Dad can fully rest in the Lord, for in this life he trusted in a God whom he could not see, now he trusts in a God whom he sees face to face. Dad’s faith, which I saw exhibited every day of my life in his faithfulness, has now come to fruition in Jesus.

Goodbye, Dad.  I miss you.  I have always been so proud of you.  You were my living hero of faith and faithfulness.  Rest well with Jesus.  I will see you soon.

Lord, make me faithful like my Dad.  Send your Holy Spirit to comfort me when I miss him.  Give me a faith like his and faithfulness each day of my life.  Until I enter into that rest you have laid up for me, too.  In Jesus, Amen.

Text Copyright Steve Nickodemus
Picture Copyright Douglas P Brauner