My Father's Eyes

The photo above was taken on the train from Skagway, Alaska to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada. My father had always dreamed of going to Alaska, so in 1999 we took him, age 86, and our fourteen-year-old granddaughter, on a seven-day cruise. It was wonderful to see through their eyes. The stops we made, the pictures we took, were different than had it just been the two of us.

My father worked on the railroad during World War II. As a teenager he was in a car wreck that fractured both ear drums, giving him a 4-F classification while others were headed off to war. Trains fascinated him. I have photographs with him and trains from Los Angeles to Galveston. He collected books and photographs of trains. It was a blessing to see him peer through the window to take in all the scenery and history between Skagway and the border.

There are other things I’ve seen through my father’s eyes. The way he looked after my mother, who suffered from ALS. The meals he fixed, as she gave him recipes and instructions; the wheelchair he pushed as they continued their travels, flying from Oklahoma to California and back twice a year; his daily Bible reading and prayer time. The love he showed for his grand and great-grandchildren.

One of our great-grandsons has his eyes, so I see through my father’s eyes, still.

I have another Father, one my father and I share with an infinite number of others. My father depended on the promise our Father gave:

In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:2-3 KJV)

My father was a roofer, so building a mansion had a special meaning for him. Especially since the home we were raised in was no more than 900 square feet. Maybe a bit smaller than his parent’s, where there were five children.

My father and I believe God’s promise. Those mansions are for us and we are worthy to be there only because of Jesus Christ.

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. (Hebrews 8:12 KJV)

Our sins are not seen through our Father’s eyes. Instead, they are as far removed as the east is from the west:

As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. (Psalms 103:12 KJV)

We are told over and over that our sins are cleansed by Christ.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:7-9 KJV)

Paul tells us the same – we are made right in our Father’s eyes.

But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:13 KJV)

The eyes of my Heavenly Father see me through the blood of His Lamb.