ing Sunday we will mark the 43rd anniversary of the birth of our first child, James Christopher, or ‘Chris’ to all of us. People ask my wife and I all the time why we got married so young. We didn’t know that we were getting married young because it was as much a part of our upbringing as eating three meals a day. Folks where we come from grew up, left home, and got married. I can’t recall one person at the time saying anything about me being 18 and she being only 17. But then again, that was way back when! At any rate, 10 months after we ‘got hitched’ as they said at the time, we welcomed our Chris into our young family.
Every child is unique. God packages each of them in ways that are peculiar to His plan and purpose for their lives. We have been privileged to watch our Chris grow, develop, and mature, as a man, a husband, a dad, and most importantly, as a child of God. A believing parent’s greatest desire is to bring all their families with them into an eternity with Christ. For us, this starts with our boys, their wives, and all of our grandchildren, extended family, and any and all we can influence with the good news of the gospel. With age one grows more intense in praying for this because of seeing the need of salvation through the lens of the wicked world we live in and the truths God has given to us.
We thank God for Chris. During this most recent crisis he has been right there with us every step of the way. He, in many ways, is like his dad, therefore, we do butt heads occasionally as we stubbornly express our views, however, at the end of the day, we can only thank God for how he has stood by us and stood up for us as we have dealt with the many issues resulting from the hurricane. In particular, I am especially grateful for he and his family in their support of my wife, his mom. This has been a stressful and emotional time for her and they have ofte
n helped lighten her load. I am reminded of the thoughts expressed by the Apostle John in one of his short inspired letters. He said it this way: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” (3rd John, verse 4) I realize he was speaking about his children in the faith, those he had either led to Christ or helped to disciple. But this is also how we feel about our offspring and we are blessed to be able to realize joy as we consider Chris and his birthday. Happy birthday son and may God continue to guide your walk with Him! Amen. More later.
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