Rejoice Always

1 Thessalonians 5:16 “Rejoice Always…” The morning I found out my dad had cancer, I gave him a video call. I saw that he was on the bus and asked where he was going. “I’m on my way to play tennis.” I thought to myself “you just found out you have a life-threatening disease, and you’re going to play tennis?!” He must have seen the look on my face, and responded with a laugh “well I’ve got to play as much as I can while I’m still able!” Later that night I called my mom to see how she was doing. I recounted the story to her and at the end of it, my dad chirped up from the background “and you know what, I played even better than usual!” A friend pinged me when he heard the news to let me know he was praying. “The couple times I met him, I felt that man’s got steel in him.” It’s true that my dad is an eternal optimist, and I’m so thankful that God’s blessed me with a model of what it means to rejoice always. Lord thank you for blessing me with a father on earth, who models so well my Father in heaven. You are good, and you have good things in store for us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.