Dr. Mike Murphy
November 20, 2023
“It is all I want, Grandpa! Just once I would like to see the parade! All the floats and the excitement. Please, Grandpa, please! Can we just find a way to go see it this year?”
Bill was like most grandparents. It was hard enough for him to tell his granddaughter “no” on the best of days. But as he watched her growing weaker with each passing day, he realized the word would just not form on his lips.
For the past two years, the care of his granddaughter had been placed in his hands. Bill’s daughter and son-in-law, Jessica’s parents, had served as missionaries, and had been led by the Spirit to a remote area in Southeast Asia. For three years they served the Lord there, spreading His Word to people who had rarely even heard a single word of the beauty and truth that the Scripture holds. Much of Jessica’s earliest memories had come from there, as her parents faithfully served the Lord each day from the remote area.
On a fall day, over two years ago, Bill received a call from his daughter that he never thought he would ever hear. The village that Bill’s daughter and her husband served, had suddenly grown very ill. An illness they soon learned was far more concerning than the flu-like symptoms they now felt. An illness that left them as a part of an epidemic, not just under the care of a simple cold. An epidemic there was no cure for. And an epidemic, that within days, would soon take from them their lives.
Although Jessica had been exposed to all this, she did not show the earlier signs of being caught up in this. Not devastated by this the way so many in the village were now. As Bill’s daughter told him of this tragic news, she asked of her dad the greatest of favors. Asking him if he would raise Jessica. If he would care for Jessica, and help bring to her life a love for Christ that he had helped nourished in her own. Four days later, Bill found himself standing at the airport, welcoming two caskets home, and staring into the eyes of a granddaughter that he barely knew.
As the days passed, Bill found no way to imagine how he had lived a day of his life without Jessica. Without the excitement she brought to life each day. Without the laughter that consistently filled their home. And without the hecticness that came with each hour of looking after a five year old girl. Soon days began to turn into months, and months turned into more than a year. As each passed by, Bill began to realize that he could not imagine what his life would have been like without Jessica at the center of it.
Two months before Jessica’s seventh birthday, Bill began to notice a persistent cough. And as the doctor checked her for a simple infection, they soon found that the blood work showed them so much more. The epidemic that had taken Jessica’s parents, had laid as dormant in Jessica’s system. Now festering, destroying her young body, without a known cure in sight. The doctor’s told Bill that they could slow its progress, but could not stop the damage it would soon do. Telling Bill, now was the time for him to prepare for what would happen in the months that would soon come.
Preparing for what was to soon come, had become Bill’s focus. And preparing for what both Jessica and him would soon face, is what had brought Bill to hear the words Jessica had spoken that day. Growing up the daughter of missionaries, Jessica had not seen the many things that most kids thought as ordinary. Never having the opportunity to experience the excitement that came with each holiday. But the love for the Lord she had grown up with, drew her like a moth to the flame, when it came to the town’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. It was the pride of the town, and a parade unlike any other. Each float, each appearance, each song the band played, not only called all to be thankful, but pointed all to a month ahead. To the night that Christ came, reminding us all, of what that night had left us thankful for. A parade, not filled with cartoon characters, but with images of that Holy Night.
Although Bill and Jessica lived only a block away from the parade route, Bill realized just how hard it was going to be, bringing Jessica the few steps necessary to travel that simple block. But Bill did everything he could to make her wish a reality, to allow her to experience the one thing she wanted to see most. With each obstacle that came his way, Bill found himself not willing to take “no” for an answer. And as the day approached, Bill put everything in place to give his granddaughter what she wanted most.
On the morning before the parade, Bill found Jessica unable to get out of bed. Her body having grown to weak to now lift itself up. And as the nurses came that day to do all the could for Jessica, Bill realized that it was him who was in need of being “lifted” up the most. As Bill prepared for the disappointment he was going to see in his granddaughter’s eyes, he began to tell her how she would just not be able to go to the town’s parade.
So hard Bill prayed, so much he called on the Lord to give him the words, and to be with his granddaughter as he knew his words would soon disappoint her. And as Bill explained to his granddaughter, and saw the tears of disappointment in Jessica’s eyes, Bill found it was his heart, that probably wept even more that day.
As Bill woke on the morning of the parade, he could hear the commotion outside. People moving frantically, blocking streets, and setting up rows of tape to block the crowds. Bill soon found his way out the door to find out exactly what was going on. And as he did, he soon found his eyes filled with tears again. Bill learned there had been a water break overnight, and the parade route had to be altered. Altered a block over, for a short stretch, that would now take the parade route directly in front of where Bill and Jessica lived.
For an hour and a half that day, Bill never stopped smiling. Because for an hour and a half, from the bed of her second story room, Jessica weakly sang every song each band played, watched wide-eyed as every special appearance was made, and had her face glued on each float that made its way by.
Jessica would only live a few days after the parade, but each day as she grew weaker, she still found a way to tell her grandfather all she had seen that day. And now, some time later as the day of Christmas approached, Bill still found himself thinking back to that day. Realizing the “early Christmas present” the Lord had given him that Thanksgiving Day. A gift far greater than one of just finding a way for his precious granddaughter to get her last wish. Bill realized that in that wish, the Lord had given Bill the most amazing of gifts. The gift of showing Bill just what His grace and His love truly means. The Lord showed Bill, that what He had done for Jessica with the parade, He had done for him that first Christmas night. Because on that night, the Lord had not found Himself waiting on man to find an impossible way to Him. On that night, the Lord did the impossible. He created a way to come to man.
For the rest of Bill’s life, he would never miss a single moment of the town’s Thanksgiving Day parade each year. And Bill was sure that the people of the town worried about him as they watched him look on the parade and cry. But with each tear, Bill not only thought of his granddaughter, Bill cherished the gift the Lord had given him on that Thanksgiving Day. The day Bill had seen the Lord make a special appearance at the Thanksgiving parade!Praying today, as you celebrate this Thanksgiving, you also look forward to the gift He gave us that night.
