This picture is a constant reminder of the faithfulness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; without Jesus Christ we can do nothing (John 15:5).
God’s steadfast love endures forever (Psalm 136). The psalmist repeated those five words twenty-six times as he reflected on God’s faithfulness in his life. This is a reflection of our own married life, which began nearly 54 years ago, and a remembrance of God’s faithfulness from generation to generation.
Eugene Peterson once asked, “What’s in a name? The history of the human race is in names. We reduce the great names of the past to dust and ashes.” We don’t always think about those who gave us our names, as we live in a fast-paced world of success, fame, fortune, wealth, power, beauty, abundance, and accomplishments — those ever so fleeting pleasures of Egypt, here today, gone tomorrow.
The meaning of our lives is found in the fact that our lives are so intermingled with those who came before us, and how we see them gives meaning to our own lives. Their contribution to our lives is far beyond comprehension when we take a good look in the rear-view mirror of our lives. Our parents, with their very limited financial resources, academic accomplishments, or global perspective — or anything we might consider worthy of admiration — lived simple, innocent lives, deeply rooted in their Maker. From them we learned how to live worthwhile, fulfilling, and satisfying lives with minimal resources. They taught us that Jesus Christ is the only way, the only truth, and the only true life.
How grateful we are to have had parents who walked away from a ritualistic, namesake, and nominal church worship toward a life of vibrant faith — thriving among other believers in growing in grace and in the knowledge of God. Although it cost my parents severely to walk away from a nominal Christian life, the generations that came after them learned that living for Jesus Christ gives us the greatest satisfaction in this life. Following Jesus Christ alone gives meaning to this brief existence. (I posted my father’s costly faith story on my Facebook page on 9/26/25: “Only one thing truly matters — your character and my character.”)
Their love for their Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer — a life lived by God’s Word, a daily rhythm of Bible reading, singing hymns and prayers, Sunday school and Sunday worship, and learning God’s Word — were all part of our growing-up years. They taught us why we are here, what God’s purpose is for our lives, and where we go once this ever-so-brief life comes to an end. All of this was introduced to us by the parents who brought us into this world, gave us a name, and raised us to live our lives to glorify our Maker.
Although decades have passed since they returned to their Maker, memories of their lives are still so vivid in our hearts and minds. We are beyond grateful for their extraordinary lives and their walk with their Maker. Our parents’ generation was, in our minds, “the great generation.” Their unwavering faith and determination to raise their children in obedience to God paved a road toward eternity. Their lives, their priorities, and how they followed their Maker first and foremost above all else gave us purpose for our own lives. We also knew, as Kamala Harris once put it, that “we did not just fall out of a coconut tree.”
For both of us, God’s plan for our lives was worked out through the parents who brought us into this world; they understood their sin nature, and that Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, was their only hope in this life. Our parents’ faith, their walk with Jesus Christ, and the sacrifices they made for us filled our hearts and minds with the utmost gratitude. We know for certain that our parents’ sweat, tears, and unceasing prayers are responsible for who we are now. They instilled in us a purpose for our lives: to hear “well done” from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
As we reach the late stages of our seventh decade of life, we are mindful that time is ticking away, and eventually time will get us all. No matter what stage of life we happen to be in, our time is slowly counting down. “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12) — words Moses wrote near the end of his life. Although the time ahead for us is largely about declining health, and ultimately being absent from the body but present with the Lord, we also see it as the most meaningful, contented, and joyful time, because this stage of life is all about preparing ourselves for our heavenly home. What a delightful way to look forward to the day we get to see our Savior Jesus Christ face to face — who gave His hand to be nailed to a cross to redeem us, so we could become children of God. The sin nature we have carried all our lives will be vanished forever.
As Ruth Graham’s headstone reads: “End of construction. Thank you for your patience.” Until each of us takes our last breath, we are all works in progress. How patient the Lord Jesus has been with us, as each of us learned to shun the world and keep our eyes on Jesus Christ and Him crucified. How patient our parents were with us throughout their lives — those who loved us deeply also showed us exceptional patience as we journeyed through this life.
Jesus Christ came into this world, took our sins and shame upon a cross, died our death on that cross, and delivered us from the domain of darkness. Every sin, every act of disobedience and lawlessness, has been paid in full. “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus Christ delivered us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of light. Fear of hell has vanished; heaven awaits truly born-again children who live in obedience to God.
“If our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:19). Our hope is what the Apostle John saw in his vision from the island of Patmos: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more… And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.’” (Revelation 21:1,3) That alone is our hope, and what we live for.
As Johnny Cash wrote in one of his lyrics, “You can have this empire of dirt,” and as Fernando Ortega added, “When I come to die, oh, when I come to die, give me Jesus” — you can have all this world, but give us Jesus.
Those five words in Psalm 136, repeated twenty-six times — “God’s steadfast love endures forever” — are where this story began. We will end with five more words: Ransomed, Healed, Restored, Forgiven, Hallelujah. Five words for all those who belong to God, from generation to generation.
This is a good place to write a bit of the history of our lives. Blaise Pascal made a statement: “There is a God-shaped hole in the heart of every one of us, that cannot be satisfied by any created thing, but only by our God, the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.” I had two such holes in my heart — first, that God-shaped hole, and second, my father’s passing when I was a young boy, which left a huge hole and, in witnessing his body lowered into a grave, caused a deep scar. One thing my mother always reminded me: after four girls, my father prayed for a boy, and I was the answer to his prayer.
Very few fathers loved their sons as much as my father loved me. His passing left deep trauma; I had no vocabulary to express it, and no one to guide me through those most traumatic years of my life. For my nine-year-old mind, despair, dejection, and anguish seemed to overwhelm my thought process. For the next ten years, life for me was deeply traumatic. I had no interest in my studies; how I made it through high school was pure grace of God — I paid no attention to my classes during those lost years, and I still view them as my nightmare years. During that time, there was no will in me to live. God’s amazing grace, and my mother’s steadfast love, alone helped me make it through those years.
If only I had had the slightest foresight that God heard my father’s prayer for me as he was taking his last breaths. God would one day answer my father’s prayer in two major ways. First, when I was still a teenager, God opened a door for me to go to a college in California. Even a cursory review of my high school transcript would never have allowed me to enter the doors of any college in India — I was the least qualified or prepared for the rigors of a college education anywhere. Yet God could still open a door and get me through a college education in California. At the same time, God was preparing a young girl in a truly godly home, where her father knew what it meant to be a godly father, her mother was deeply rooted in God’s Word and knew what it meant to be a godly mother, and her siblings knew how to be siblings to one another. Their Christian life was not just a Sunday-morning affair of carrying a Bible to church; it was a seven-day, twenty-four-hour true Christian faith. One day, God was going to make a way for us to share life together.
My oldest sister, her family, and my wife’s family were all members of the same church and had seen her grow up. That sister must have selected the bride for her little brother years before either one of us had thought about finding a spouse. Our marriage grew out of a conversation between my oldest sister and my wife’s mother. She was in New Delhi, working as a nurse, and I was in California, near the end of my college years. We began corresponding with each other, an engagement service was planned and conducted in their home, and then she flew to California, where we met for the first time at San Francisco International Airport. Pastor Don Chitwood conducted our wedding ceremony at Faith Chapel in Fresno, California.
The God-shaped hole Pascal wrote about — God has always been at work filling that hole in my heart. The other great hole in my heart, from the absence of my father, my wife has been filling for almost 54 years. We are recipients of God’s amazing grace, that ocean of grace that has been poured, and is still pouring, into us all these years, though we are utterly unworthy.
No, no one is good; we have all sinned; we all fall short of the glory of God, every one of us. What we all deserve is hell, but Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, became sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God. Therefore, we have no fear of hell; heaven is our ultimate destiny.
My various corporate assignments relocated us to numerous places, all new and strange, to make into our new homes. For me, home is where she is, no matter what new city my assignments took us to. Every chapter of our lives, God has planned with the utmost precision. God knew the perfect time to bring us together. My wife’s grace, strength, and wisdom through the choppy waters of life have been my saving grace. She has an instinct to keep our eyes focused on Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, the Author and Finisher of our faith, and to minimize the distractions of this world, regardless of the circumstances of life. As a result of the training she received from her parents from the earliest days of her life, we have always known we have a refuge. Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, is our refuge and strength. I am so grateful to God for how she is wired, which makes our life so full of hope.
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’s ministry, over more than 40 years, left the world with over 1,600 sermons available online. They help us keep our eyes on Jesus Christ and on God’s Word, to live under the power of the Holy Spirit. His writings also help prepare us for our final heavenward journey: “If you have lived seven decades of life, the seventh decade should be considered a ‘sabbath decade,’ preparing for heaven with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is the time to disengage from the business of this life, and all the nonsense of this world, and to focus on Jesus Christ, Him crucified, and His living Word. The Bible alone can light up and direct our ways. All things of this world are just a very temporary, ‘this too will pass’ phase for a true child of God.”
Therefore, we do our best to keep our eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2) — to leave our footprints for those who follow us, just as those before us left their footprints for us. “He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).