Sustained

I needed to think beyond my sorrow.
I needed to feel God's comfort.
I needed to be still and worship Him.

Sitting down to the piano
I played several songs
ending with
Great is Thy Faithfulness.

Then without forethought,
I held the sustain pedal with the last chord
and closed the wooden cover over the keyboard.

...and there I sat.

Although I could no longer play
or even see the piano keys,
the sweetness of the melody
lingered within those final notes
as they slowly faded
until my ears
could no longer perceive the tones.

Tomorrow I will be traveling
quite possibly to say good-bye
to my Dad.

The sweetness of God's great faithfulness
is sustained
within Dad's frail body
and confused mind,
for it was refreshed and nourished daily
with God's Word
for as long as I can remember.

"When I came to you, brothers,

I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom

as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.

For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you

except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

"I came to you in weakness and fear,

and with much trembling.

My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words,

but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power,

so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom,

but on God's power.

"We do, however, speak a message

of wisdom among the mature,

but not the wisdom of this age or with the rulers of this age,

who are coming to nothing.

No, we speak of God's secret wisdom,

a wisdom that has been hidden

and that God destined for our glory before time began.

"None of the rulers of this age understood it,

for it they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

However, as it is written:

'No eye has seen, no ear has heard,

no mind has conceived

what God has prepared for those who love Him,'

but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit.

"The Spirit searches all things,

even the deep things of God.

For who among men knows the thoughts of a man

except the man's spirit within him?"

~I Corinthians 2:1-11