A Rich Heritage

Mom and I listened to the recordings of Dad's memorial service tonight. Here are some highlights from what people shared:

• When Dad was in grad school at USC, he burned a hole in a door across the hall with his laser beam. :)
• In the 1970s Dad organized a trip for 150 college students to attend Urbana. (Little did he know his daughters would continue that tradition. ;))
• Dad introduced his friend, Steve Dashiell, to Jesus when he was in grad school and they were best friends for some 25 years after that ("they" meaning Dad and Steve but you can include Jesus in that too).
  
• One of the top managers at Xerox said that he learned everything he knew about parenting from my Dad.
  
• Several missionaries said how much they felt like our house was a home to them when they came back on furlough and how much wisdom and encouragement Dad gave them when they were here.
  
• Dad had a record at Xerox of all his achievements and groups that he's managed. The last entry said "Group Managed: Family. Highest Position Attained: Father."

I know I'm sounding redundant, but I just wish that the whole world would have known my dad. I wish our staff team and my college friends could have known him. I wish my new friends at church and my coworkers could have known him. And now I can only hope that they might see just some small piece of who he was by looking at me.

And that yearning I have for the world to know the dad I had is just a tiny reflection of the desire I have for the world to see how great of a God I have. I want to be like my dad because, when people saw my dad, they saw Jesus. And my prayer and deepest desire is that somehow, through the mystery and grace of God, they might see Jesus in me too.

For everything in me (in regards to both my dad and to Jesus - though the latter all the more) just wants to scream to the world, "You gotta meet my Dad! You gotta meet my Dad!"