All-Saints

My dad, Timothy Kanyion, died in April 2008. He was only 50 years old. It was only one year after I graduated from college and, honestly, I was just entering a phase in my life where we were becoming close. Not that we were distant before, our relationship had been father and son and all that that entails. But it wasn't until I was married with a child and a job that we shifted into the real man to man stuff.

Indeed, the day before he fell into a coma he came to my house in Dayton, OH and we had some good grown man time together. His death was very difficult for me and many others. 50 is too young to die from health issues, right? But death comes in many ways, shapes, times, and forms. We are never really prepared. We just learn to deal. 

I have dealt with it pretty well, I think. I'm not one who is given to much emotion, but from time to time I think of him and wonder how things would've been different if he were still here. And sometimes I think of the day I'll see him again. 

I am one who believes that our life goes on. In the words of Dallas Willard, "we are never ceasing spiritual beings with an eternal destiny in God's good universe." He is right. Therefore one day I will be reacquainted with my dad. I have scripted the reunion in my head several times. I will be waking into a new world, and from some corner of a magnificent room I will hear a familiar voice say, "Biggie." 

(That's what my dad called me due to my Viking-like 13 lbs. birth.)

It will be a glorious occasion. Indeed, there will be billions like it. 

On this All-Saints day, 2014, I remember Timothy Kanyion. I hope you take the time to remember those who have fallen asleep in Christ today, and as often as possible. 

Until then, dad.