A Father's Love

All praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the source of every mercy and the God who comforts us. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

There are no pictures or stories passed down from a mother or father about the event. The living reminder is a scar. Scars are a signature of a painful event in the life of the body. Some scars are also the gateway to a world of emotional pain. I have scars in many different places on my body, but I have one scar that is very significant. It is my favorite scar. This scar reminds me of my father's love.

When I was almost three years old, I was running in the house and tripped and fell on my sister Terry's toy sewing machine. My left knee hit the sharp edge of the metal base (before the toy safety movement). The cut was long and deep. Blood began to flow.

My father took a white sheet and began ripping it into strips. He began wrapping my knee until the bleeding stopped. I will never forget sitting in his lap, being held by his big hands, with my mummified leg. I will never forget those hands. My own hands remind me of his hands. Drawing on the memory of that significant event reminds me of my father's love. There is a feeling of love associated with that event that has stayed with me my entire life. Tragically, those hands were taken away a few weeks later, when my father was killed in a one car accident, four days before Christmas. One of the newspaper accounts said, "the car, apparently going at a high rate of speed, was demolished hitting the concrete sign post. There were no skid marks leading to the sign." I lost my birth father a few days before Christmas and a few weeks before my third birthday, but the memory of his love has stayed with me my entire life.