"Good to Go!"

Dad died of COVID-19 four years ago today, but he was ready

My father died of COVID-19 on this date, February 26, back in 2021.

He was 91 years old. His lungs, damaged years before by decades of smoking Camel cigarettes, though he’d quit smoking in the late-1960s, were vulnerable to the COVID virus.

Dad’s mind, though, was vibrant until the day he died.

One of my sisters and I were able to be with him on the hospital COVID ward as he died. The supervising nurse explained to Dad that he had a decision to make. The drugs and high-flow oxygen could keep him alive for an indefinite period of time if he was induced into a coma state, she explained. “But in two weeks, your prognosis will not have improved.”

Dad told her he understood. She went on, “If we withhold this treatment, you will die. But we can keep you comfortable and put you to sleep as you expire.”

Dad told her, “Let’s go with that option.”

The nurse was somewhat taken aback by Dad’s decisiveness and, possibly thinking that this 91 year old man didn’t quite understand his situation, pressed Dad to determine whether he was capable of making such a decision about his treatment.

“I understand,” Dad told her, “let’s go.”

The nurse asked Dad, “Do you know what a gift you’re giving your family by taking this responsibility off their shoulders?” “Why wouldn’t I do that?” he asked her. “They’d do the same for me.”

Besides, Dad said, “I’m good to go. I know where I’m going.”

I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING.

Dad knew he was heading into the arms of Jesus Christ, Who would keep Dad in His care until that day when Christ returns to this world to call His people from their graves to live with Him in the new heaven and the new earth.

Dad knew where he was going not because he thought he was better than anybody else.

Dad knew where he was going because Jesus died for sinners like him (and me and you) and rose from the dead to give forgiveness and eternal life with God to all who believe in Him.

Jesus says, “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me [that’s God the Father] has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” (John 5:24)

Dad wasn’t a Bible-thumper, just a man of integrity who by the power of Christ’s Word of promise given to Him in Baptism, in the Scriptures, and in Holy Communion, believed in Jesus Christ.

His profession of belief in Jesus—”I’m good to go. I know where I’m going”—are among the last words I ever heard him speak.

A few hours later, unconsciously struggling to catch his breath as COVID killed him, Dad breathed his last.

He did so filled with confidence in the Savior Jesus Who bore our sin, death, and condemnation so that He could give us—give YOU, life with God that never ends.

In Jesus Christ, all your sins—all your failure to love God above all and your failure to love others as you love yourself in impulse, orientation, thought, word, and action—are forgiven and eternity is yours to receive.

There’s nothing you must do or can do to be acceptable to God or worthy of this forgiveness or the eternal life with God for which that forgiveness makes you fit.

Jesus has done it all.

So daily turn away from sin and death (that’s repentance) and turn to Christ.

In Christ, you too can know God’s presence and help in this world AND be “good to go,” confident of where you’re going, to God Who loves you and wants you more than anything.

And when you get to eternity, be sure to look up my Dad and me.

[This picture of my Dad and me was taken about thirty years ago.]