A Poem by Dad

Photo from iStock by "pluskieferpix"

“To My Son” 

At first you needed my strong arms, And they were willing too;

God’s fatherhood I came to see, When you cuddled close to me.

And then you needed just my hand—A toddler at my side;

How proud you were to stand up straight, And try to match your father’s gait!

At last you only sought my voice—A word of counsel kind;

You had a body tall and fine, With strength that far exceeded mine.

And now you have just my prayer—Daily to God I say,

“May this, my son be son of Thine, And hold Thy hand as he held mine.”

I don’t know if my dad authored this, but I do know he lived it!

I need to tell you that Dad’s handwriting was very artistic, nearly perfect penmanship in his earlier days (one reason why I have saved every letter ever written to me). However, he had lost much of this ability due to physical challenges brought on by supra-nuclear palsy, which eventually took his life. From the look of this poem and age of paper, I’m guessing he wrote this in his late thirties or early forties. I would have been about ten years old, my oldest brother about seventeen. He always shared his heart well on paper; and seemed to glorify his Lord with every stroke of a pen.