My Dad was a quiet man who didn’t often take time to express his deepest feelings. A week before he died, I was talking with him on the telephone. We both realized that his time was very short. I ended the phone call with “Dad, I love you.” There was a momentary lull at the other end before Dad responded with “Uh… me too!” That was the best that he could come up with at the time. It was enough for me. When I spoke with my sister, she had almost the exact same conversation with Dad. I learned very late in life that Dad was one of those about whom it could be said that “still waters run deep!” Earlier in my life, I would have said that Dad was a weak man. But later on I watched him stop abusive drinking by a single decision to stop… and he never touched another drop of alcohol for the rest of his life. He also stopped smoking (2 packs of Camels a day from his early twenties) knowing that his doctor was going to tell him to stop. He never touched another cigarette or any other form of tobacco. Weak man? I don’t think so. It was just that Dad kept his inner most being to himself. And that inner being was deeply formed.
It was therefore a delight to come across a paper he must have written during Confirmation Class. He was likely about 12 at the time. This paper reflects a person trying to make sense out of a world that is often divided into scientific and religious spheres. It reveals a questioning mind and an ability to deal with complex issues.
I
In some time of in our lives we all wonder whether there is a real God or not and whether Jesus was ever born. You get some idea like this “How could one person create such a Universe as ours all by himself. Great Inventors and men who study the solar system and the stars all believe in God. Such a fact is found by going into the deepest of God’s wonderful creations.
Probally when most of us were children, Just old enough to understand Jesus we wondered and marveled at His works and healings. Then they we seeaw His picture they we seeaw him as an ordinary man and their our idea of Jesus being the sSon of God all a story. When we have grown to be around 12 years old we realize that after all he was not like ordinary men. He was very strong because a carpenter in those days had to be.
II
There are many people ion this earth who never went go to church and even some who do not believe in God. Can they be just as good as Christian as one who has went gone to church all his life and believes in God? Not so long ago I heard a minister speak and he said that all the great men who have made a financial success in business were all church going people. Some were presidents of YMCA’s others taught large Bible School classes and the like.
One man [of whom I] I have read of never went to church or even believed in God. When on his death[bed] he begged the priest to baptize him and bless him, Was this because he was afraid to venture into the future world? Or because in his las moments he was convinced there was a God?
III
When we take a walk in the woods or in the park we see all kinds of wild flowers. We marvel at the height of the great trees and we are sure that some Divine Hand made these beautiful things so.
When you take science in School you then have get a different view of God. You wonder how it is that Science contradicts the Bible. The Bible says God made the earth in six days and nights. But science says it took millions of years to form it. They say earth was part of a gasseous matter. Under the ation [?action?] of Gravity it began to revolve and bits of it were hurled off, forming the earth and other planets.
But God seems to hold the Supreme rule. As an example we take the Hebrews. They almost gave up hope of ever getting free from the Egyptians. But God always helps those who believe in him.
IV
He sent Moses to save them. Who else could of made the seas part, so men could walk across. This certainly proves there is a Divine Savior.
A nation that believes in God Always has fared well and always will. But one who looses faith always perishes. Take Rome for an example. People began to be to busy to give some of their time to God and what happened, Rome was destroyed.
This sounds like a pretty good basis from which to build a life that embraces both science and religion. Way to go, Dad!
October 1 will be the100th anniversary of Dad’s birth. He died in 1990 at age 77.