When Dad no longer knows the faces of his family,
Yet will you know him, O Lord.
When he can no longer remember his own name,
Yet will you remember him.
This will be his enduring hope, until at last he wakes from his long fog
into a bright morning of clarity and sees you face to face,
remembering again all that he had forgotten,
and knowing then even as he is known.
In light of this promise, give him peace even now,
secure in the knowledge that what is obscured from him is not truly lost,
only tucked away and waiting to be revealed fully in that eternal light.
O God, though all else be hid from him,
all memory, all knowledge, all understanding,
do not hide your presence.
Be to him more present, more immediate,
more abundant in grace and peace, than ever he knew.
Though he knows nothing else, still let him know you.
And if a morning dawns when he can no longer name you
or remember to call upon you, be more immediately present to him then
than his own confusion, than his own breath.
Be to him a peace and a light and an abiding sense that he is loved and held
and that all will be well.
Give grace and mercy also, O God, to those of us grieve his decline,
to those who love him, who must suffer the heartache of such slow loss.
Bless our patient sacrifice on Dad's behalf. May our hope and our humor hold
and our hearts be strengthened beyond expectation.
Thank you for the years of health and love we were given to share.
May those memories and your grace sustain us in sorrow.
Be near us now.
O Father, in his weakness, be strong.
O Jesus, in his loss, be found.
O Spirit, in his absence, be present.
O God, in his forgetfulness, remember Dad, your child.
Amen.