As I’m writing this, I’m sitting in a parked car outside Kaiser Permanente, wondering if a patient is going to come home with us, or go home to Glory.
My dad never taught me to fish (at how to catch one). He never taught me how to play baseball like a pro, although he did play catch with me.
He did teach me how to code. Not in an academic sense, but by experience.
The first computer I remembered was an ancient TRS-80 with a monochrome monitor and a cassette drive. Yes, I personally remember when they had cassette drives on computers.
These were the days when computer drives were the size of refrigerators. I remember my dad taking me to his work where they were printing out Donald Duck on a plotter.
Next in line was the Commodore 64, where I learned:
10 PRINT "I AM A PROGRAMMER"
20 GOTO 10Eventually I upgraded to a IBM PC compatible.
Meeting the Master coder
More importantly that learning to code, was bringing me to the Master Coder. My dad was faithful in bringing my mom, my sister and myself to church and to the Bible. He was by no means a great Biblical scholar or evangelist, and the churches were often less-than stellar. Yet his faithfulness made an impact in our lives that nobody else would compare to.
I remember one time he and I went to a membership meeting at church where he shared his testimony. He said nothing anyone would consider captivating, but stumbling over his words, he ended with this.
“The Lord has been very good to me.”
John Tweeton
Hearing those words made me struggle to hold back tears, because he acknowledged he was a desperate man in need of a Savior. In his story, he wasn’t the hero — Jesus was and is the hero.
As I’m writing this, Jesus still is the hero and I’m desperate for Him. I have no clue what today will bring. Our only hope is in Jesus, who commands power to raise even the dead.
Thank you Dad, for loving me enough to lead me to trust in Jesus. I will miss you dearly during this time away.