Yesterday, after a battle with brain cancer waged over a year and a half, my father passed away.

He was a great man, and he taught me far too many things over the years for me to list here, but I’ll try to hit the ones that will stick with me the most. He showed me the value of being thoughtful and considered in decisions. He also valued understanding how things work, and following that example, I ended up in the software engineering field just like he did. He was always forthright and always had time for people, always attentive to his responsibilities, and all-around a good friend to everyone he knew. In the same way, he was a good father, honest and encouraging, and always there when I needed a hand. Especially over these last twenty months or so, he was a shining example of peace and faith.

And that—faith in God and His peace in hard times—was the most important thing he showed me. Besides being an example of how to follow Christ and glorify God with his daily life, my father’s love for me reflected the love God has for me, the latter so great that He sent His own Son to bear the weight of my sin. That’s the great premise of Christianity, but right now, I take more solace in one of its great promises: we are sojourners in a world that is not our home, and although we might have to say goodbye sometimes, we need never say goodbye forever.

So, dad, I’ll miss you in the interim, but how torn up can I really be? You’re arriving on (and maybe windsurfing off of?) the golden shores of heaven. Have a ball, save a seat for me, and find the buffet in our Father’s house. God still has a ton of stuff for me to do and to learn here, before my travels in this strange land are done and I get to go home, but eventually, some day down the line, I’ll be seeing you.