Look Back, Look On, Look Up!
Eerie. I'm writing as my father, deceased now two and a half years, whose 56th birthday would be tomorrow. I created an account in his name because I'm trying to say something. I miss him. Was listening to his God album, made after his recommitment to Jesus. It's a good album, one I think worthy of landing the opening entry for this blog. I have been thinking about reconnecting with my family. They're still here and I've been missing them. We're all in different parts of the country and the world, and we really don't talk all that often. I recently spoke with my mother on the grief that causes us. We wondered why. But it doesn't matter why it is because, at this point, it is. But what is now doesn't have to be. One thing about our family is, I would say, we are God people. Mostly, we're Jesus people but on the whole we're God people. We seek to find ourselves in the will of the God who made, makes, and loves us. The God of Abraham. An ancient tradition born in nomadic seeking found it's way into our family life and has settled, I pray, for good.
The manner of this blog will be 365 days of devotion, again, I pray. Each of the family members will contribute in the form of a prayer, a meditation, a word of encouragement, a writing, hopefully in regular rotation, but my guess is we will do this as the Spirit leads. For today, I meditate on Mark Hernandez, Dad, his life and contribution to the world, and us. I thought about this blog and where it might derive its premise, concluding that my father's passing is a great place to start. Like Our Father in Heaven, Dad is a perplexing figure, unruly and devout. Of course, very much unlike God, my father was not to be trusted with our lives. But that's fodder for another post.
Many, if not all, of the songs below are maintained by a friend of my father's, John Stephenson, who was a large part of the reason my father eventually left our family many years ago. John became a Christian a little while after my father resurfaced and gave his life back to God. A few years after that my father would make an album with contributions from members of his old band, yet suffused in devotion and communion with God. I hear in the words and the rhythms of the tracks, in the Spirit of it, the God-born plea for a life abundant to be shared with all; to find the faith of an ancient nomad swelling in our hearts for our time. It's a journeyman's faith, and the sense of it is only understood en route. I look back to look on. Don't forget to look up!
Sky Gaze Band (Dad)
The manner of this blog will be 365 days of devotion, again, I pray. Each of the family members will contribute in the form of a prayer, a meditation, a word of encouragement, a writing, hopefully in regular rotation, but my guess is we will do this as the Spirit leads. For today, I meditate on Mark Hernandez, Dad, his life and contribution to the world, and us. I thought about this blog and where it might derive its premise, concluding that my father's passing is a great place to start. Like Our Father in Heaven, Dad is a perplexing figure, unruly and devout. Of course, very much unlike God, my father was not to be trusted with our lives. But that's fodder for another post.
Many, if not all, of the songs below are maintained by a friend of my father's, John Stephenson, who was a large part of the reason my father eventually left our family many years ago. John became a Christian a little while after my father resurfaced and gave his life back to God. A few years after that my father would make an album with contributions from members of his old band, yet suffused in devotion and communion with God. I hear in the words and the rhythms of the tracks, in the Spirit of it, the God-born plea for a life abundant to be shared with all; to find the faith of an ancient nomad swelling in our hearts for our time. It's a journeyman's faith, and the sense of it is only understood en route. I look back to look on. Don't forget to look up!
Sky Gaze Band (Dad)
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