Son, Can I Go to Worship with You?
Dad, became a christian in 1968. I was 8, I remember it like it was yesterday. Our family was happy, we were a unit. We even had the church directory photo!
A year later…He quit.
We would ask him to go and worship with us. The answer was simple. No.
Were there reasons, yes. Good ones, no.
He went back to a way of life that was horrible. Extremely horrible.
Don’t get me wrong, he was a provider. We did not go without, (however, Mom did work outside the home).
His sins were many, gambling, drinking, adultery, cursing and the list goes on.
He was sinking, and he didn’t care.
But we prayed. A lot.
I will be honest with you… There was a time I thought there was no more hope.
But still we prayed.
I’m glad the Lord did not come for the next 13 years…because my Dad would have been lost.
It was a week night – Gospel Meeting going on at the home congregation. I was home on Spring Break from college. Went to work with Dad that day (he was a route salesman), got to his last store. A bar he frequented. I had left my car close by because I was going to the meeting. I would just leave him there.
Got to the house and was getting out of the shower and I heard someone come in. It was Dad.
He didn’t stay to drink.
He came home.
Then the question…
Son, would it be okay if I come to worship with you?
I thought he was kidding me at first, but there was something different.
We all went together.
We all walked in, he was greeted with love and a lot of surprised faces.
We sat together. He listened intently, then the invitation song was sung. I looked at him holding on to the back of the pew with white knuckles. Not budging.
Then Mom reached over, took his hand and said, “I’ll go with you”
He let go.
They walked down that Isle, there wasn’t a dry eye in that house.
Dad came home.
Sunday morning… I heard the sweetest words.”Let’s go to worship”
Dad has a birthday this Saturday…he would have been 88.
Sunday, I will be at his favorite place. Worship, I hope you will be there too!
God is good.
Jerry Elder 