Family

November 16th 2007 Part Two

I wrote recently and posted a video of a small gathering that Corinne and I had at our house and how great it was to see everyone again. Well that same night as everyone began to arrive we received word that a video clip of my son Samuel's platoon was posted online, so we raced to the computer and looked it up and carefully watched as face after face panned by. I began to wonder, would I recognize him? When suddenly, there he was, no doubt about it, that's my son.
I can't put into words all that I felt when I saw him, even though the clip only shows him for about two seconds, it meant the world to me. It reminded me that soon we would be seeing him again and I won't go into detail, but it seems there have been a great many changes for the better in his life.
There is a part in the story Jesus told of the prodigal son in Luke 15 where it says "But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him." I have to tell you, I know what it is like to be looking for your son even when he is far off, and hoping to see him again, I understand how everything that was in the past means nothing to the thought of compassion for him and being able to see him, fall on his neck and kiss him.
These emotions became a reality that moved me to tears just seeing him for those two seconds. Oh, and I wasn't the only one who shed a tear that night, many who knew Samuel and saw him on the video were moved to tears as well, and yeah, they were all girls, ...so what's my excuse?

…I'm his father.

For those who would like to see him, Samuel is 4th row second from the right, he appears from 1:06 - 1:08 in the video below.