Both my fathers are in Heaven. For me, it has always been this way. If God watched me from the moon, Daddy rested on the brightest nearby star.

I grew up dreaming of the time I would get to meet my Daddy, face to face. I sought out his footsteps, so I could somehow follow a shadow never seen for myself.

From my earliest memories as a three-year-old, trying to grasp the meaning of “forever,” I reached out to God, which formed the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

God became my hero; always there, ready, willing and able to provide whatever Daddy could not. Comfort, protection, laughter, reassurance, silliness; it didn’t matter.

God was my Father because I was fatherless, and that is exactly what He promised in Psalm 68:5.

After that, I grew up dreaming of a time I would get to meet my Father, face to face. I sought out his footsteps, determined to follow a shadow I could actually see for myself.

It was through the lens of being fatherless that I could ask for the moon. And receive it.

I learned the healing comes from brokenness. The fairy-tale comes from the emptiness. The welcome embrace comes out of loneliness.

By losing my father, I gained a deep and perfect bond to Heaven.

I never prayed directly to Daddy, but he was always listening, and God was always ready to deliver any messages to him.

Some might call this a fairy-tale. But that’s fine. Because it’s mine, and it’s all I’ve ever had.

Later, as I grew older, I heard many so-called experts proclaim this was impossible. “There is no proof in the Bible that we will know one another in Heaven,” they said. Or some suggested Daddy was still in the ground, like a holding cell, waiting to be called up one day.

But some of those same experts also presented God as a distant, man-behind-the-curtain kind of God who we meet on the day of judgment as He bellows the question: “Why should I allow you into Heaven?”

But who wants a God like that?

And why would the Creator of the Universe (the Heavens, included) feel the need to prove anything to his own creation? Why would He reveal all his secrets?

All I know is that I’ve spent my entire life talking to God, and Daddy, about Heaven and eternity.

Does this make me an expert?

I hope so.

Relationships are what God has used from day one to spread his love. They are the only thing we can actually take to Heaven with us.

In Luke 23:43, Jesus said to the thief who first learned to believe from the cross beside him, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise. ”

That’s a relationship! And it’s immediate!

If not, then what’s the point of being David Morris’s daughter?

So this is what I believe.

My Daddy tells me he loves me. He is proud of me. Sometimes, he is so close, I can touch him. Those moments are my favorite, and always leave me seeking more.

He tells me it will be worth it; that’s he’s worked out a deal so God will allow me to run into Daddy’s arms first; because we’ve waited a lifetime for this.

We will embrace. We will dance. We will sing. We will be silly together.

Because he is mine and I am his.

This is true for both my Fathers in Heaven.

Because it is and always will be about the relationship.

 

 

 

 

Janet Grimes

Janet is the author of The Parent's Guide to Uncluttering Your Home, scheduled to be released early in 2011 through Atlantic Publishing. She launched Abbandoned Ministries late in 2010, which leads others through her writing and speaking to seek God, as Abba, during times of abandonment. She currently writes monthly for Christian Woman Today, The Christian Pulse, the grief website Open to Hope, and Mamapedia. For additional information on Janet, visit her website at http://janetmorrisgrimes.com or http://abbandoned.com.

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