It was a strange coincidence to find myself working on this Father’s Day edition in the final couple of weeks of my own father’s life.
As Dad was dying, we shared some special family times, with conversations that brought tears and laughter. We were able to give thanks for things that had brought meaning to his life—and the many ways Dad had enriched our lives as well.
My father’s connection with The Salvation Army began when he married my mum. Having left his own church some years earlier, Dad was initially more of a Christmas and christenings church attender. But, as we children grew up, Dad was recruited as a frequent and long-suffering youth group chauffeur and, eventually, The Salvation Army became Dad’s spiritual home.
Reconnecting with God in his middle years brought Dad much peace, and he also valued the opportunity to give back in so many ways to The Salvation Army.
Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes famously likened the human brain to ‘a little empty attic’, saying it was important when stocking that attic with furniture only to bring in useful facts, since it was ‘a mistake to think that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent’. However, it seems there’s a lot more room in our brains than we might have believed —particularly for memories.
Scientists have discovered that our brain is able to store petabytes of data, similar to the size of the entire internet! That’s hard to comprehend, and to me is further evidence that we are created by God, made in God’s image. And, of course, sometimes the memories we might think most trivial, later prove themselves to offer the greatest comfort.
In life, we have the opportunity to make good memories, and then, when our loved ones have gone, to revisit the many precious memories in which they feature. This Father’s Day, I’ll be remembering a father who I loved—and I pray other readers also mourning the loss of their fathers will take similar comfort from the richness of their memories.
Christina Tyson
Editor
1 Chronicles 29:17 New Living Translation
‘I know, my God, that you examine our hearts and rejoice when you find integrity there …’
1 Ngā Whakapapa 29:17
‘E mōhio ana hoki ahau, e tōku Atua, e whakamātauria ana te ngākau e koe, e manako ana hoki koe ki te tika …’