My father was very ill, bed ridden, in pain and dying. Family and relatives were around that day helping and doing chores when my father started crying out for our salvation. With a hint of desperation and a weak voice he was trying to tell us about Jesus and the route he offered to salvation.
Let me step back a minute and describe something about my father. My father who had been in the Navy was a Christian and that was the priority in his life. He always put others above any conflict or difficulty. He attended church every Sunday, volunteered, and always prayed for members when he knew. He also dragged us kids to Sunday school every week and stayed with us through our rebellious years.
So when my father was lamenting in his pain about our salvation I sat down in the chair next to him and read the chapter I had read from the Bible that morning, Acts 27. It didn't occur to me when I read it then, but when I read it to my father a new meaning reached into our lives.
As you may remember in Acts 27, Paul, is shipwrecked. The 276 sailor with him are so terrified they won't eat. To reassure them Paul tells them about how an Angel of the Lord had appeared to him saying [Acts 27:24] "Don't be afraid, Paul . . . God in his goodness to you has spared the lives of all those who are sailing with you."
Suddenly I had to fight back tears. My father seemed to calm down also as we heard the verse. "All those who have sailed with you have been saved, Dad," I said paraphrasing the verse. I read it again: "God in his goodness to you has spared the lives of all those who are sailing with you." I paraphrased again: "All those who have sailed with you are saved Dad. Thank you."
All the family members within hearing distance seemed to sense the change in my father, as he seemed to relax. He knew, I think, at that moment, that he had done all that was asked of him. We were blessed as the Holy Spirit gave us this moment and reassured my father in his dying days.
