Two indelible images in my head today: former pastor Daniel Herrera Sr. coming up the pulpit at Victory Caloocan to preach a sermon with his son, our youth pastor John Paul Herrera. I attended the U-Belt/Caloocan staff meeting for the first time when our leadership team planned this. I thought I already imagined the picture in my head two weeks ago but nothing prepared me for the powerful impact the duo would make when they finally did the sermon today.
Exactly a week ago, Pastor Paul preached about investing our lives in the next generation. Today, his preaching happened right before our eyes. It unfolded in a way we would never have guessed. God, in His amazing sense of timing, spectacularly showed us what investing in the next generation really looks like in the flesh- a graying father sharing the pulpit with his young son.
I cried. I cried because that image is simply too powerful to be ignored.
I cried because the Lord just showed me a picture of a kind of future I could now aim at and pray about. Until today, my idea of getting old is a picture of brown leaves falling off the trees, of dying embers, of gray hairs, of an old man in a wheel chair strapped with medicine pockets. Until today, my idea of old age is a farewell speech on a deathbed.
Not anymore.
When I grow old, I want a fraction of that tender pleasure of fatherhood Mr. Herrera Sr. experienced today. I want a similar snap shot, a similar image to burn in my head before the Lord takes me home. I look foward to that symbolic turning over of a family legacy to the next generation, whether in a pulpit or out of the pulpit.
Thank you Kuya Dan and Pastor Paul for that fresh insight.
Jojo Agot 