Category: Life

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Kindness & Civility Matter

Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Socialists, are all labels we give ourselves and apply to others based on political leanings. They are just labels. They do not determine our character or morality.

I am an ardent believer in having lawful elections. Tuesday night in my state, the polls had closed only a minute or two and the election was called. I was stunned because the votes could not have been counted. Watching the election be called by the media today was tough, not because of who was called the victor; but because not all ballots have been counted. The process of lawful elections matters, even when it is inconvenient.

It was as if over night a decision was made to have all the media call the projected winner at almost exactly the same time (while the President was on the golf course) and change the news cycle, to begin the transition before a single state had certified the election.

Maybe the outcome will not change. What happens if it does?

There is a part of me that wants to rail and scream because of the media manipulations, the big tech controlling of free speech all of which played a role in this election cycle. There is a part of me that has serious concern about the forward marching of agendas that I believe undermine our democratic republic; and there is a part of me that just wants to see it all be over.

Watching all the celebrations in the streets I can’t help but wonder if there will be a spike in COVID cases and lockdowns mandated. I wonder if magically there will be no COVID spike even though thousands of people are shoulder to shoulder in the streets for hours on end.

I’m curious if the Massachusetts Governor will appoint Joe Kennedy to replace Elizabeth Warren if she gets a cabinet position. I wonder if Sen. Coons and Sen. Sanders will get a cabinet position. I worry about the price of oil skyrocketing. I wonder about the AOC and her Squad versus Speaker Pelosi battle that is sure to come. And I wonder who the Governor of California will appoint to replace Sen. Harris if she is indeed sworn in as Vice President.

In the next week or so, the newly elected will arrive in Washington and get new legislator training. The annual lottery for office space will take place and a majority of legislators’ offices will be moved between now and the start of the new Congress.

Whatever your feelings about the November 2020 elections; about what will happen in the legal challenges, please remember to be kind to one another. I feel like maybe at the start of each day everyone should watch a rerun of a Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood episode.

I do know I’m tried of people making negative comments about our President – like him or not, he is President; and has done a lot of good things. Two peace deals in the Middle East among them. I worry how the next administration will handle Iran. And now that it has been shown that GMO crops are losing their pesticide resistance (Thank you NPR for the story), I wonder how a return signing onto agreements that were pushing GMOs on the world will be affected.

But tonight, I’ll simply focus on trying to keep my own advice and be kind and civil!

In the words of the Dali Lama – “Be Kind Whenever Possible. It is Always Possible.”

In the words of Mother Theresa, “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.”

And finally, in the words of Beth Clay, “Love in the most power energy on the planet, Kindness emanates from a place of love within; and Civility is always appropriate!”

My hope and prayer for the United States of America and all her people is that truth, justice and liberty will prevail; that we can remember kindness and civility along the way, even though it will be a challenge; and that whatever your belief system, you lean into it to see you through the coming weeks and months.

Always,

Beth

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The Dark Underbelly of COVID-19 – Bigotry & Racism

As I write this my heart is heavy with sorrow, not because I have lost someone to the COVID-19 virus, but because I was unaware of the dark underbelly of the COVID-19 pandemic and how it has affected one of my most precious treasures – one of my own children.

My children are all adults, but as a mom, your babies are your babies even if they are 30 years old. The umbilical cord may have been cut, but there is a spiritual, energetic, heartstring that will never sever. When I’m 100 and they are on Social Security, they will still in my soul be my babies, my most treasured jewels.

I thought I understood racism, after all, I grew up in the era of Martin Luther King, I was a part of the desegregation of schools in the south. I’ve written about the need for greater diversity in certain professions. I have seen crosses burning in the fields when the KKK had a meeting outside of the town where I grew up. I thought I got it.

What I didn’t realize is how at least one of my children is experiencing racism routinely with his work in hospitality. Understand, none of my children fall into the ‘snowflake’ category. They are Asian American, raised by their pale-skinned white mother in a single-parent household. They survived the financial roller coaster, that goes with a single-parent household where the other parent doesn’t meet his obligation regularly and so much more. There were times in their upbringing that we dealt with bigotry head-on from individuals who simply didn’t understand their racist comments were hurtful or didn’t care.

When Congresswoman Chu requested that President Trump stop calling COVID the Chinese virus because it was offensive, I brushed her opinion aside, thinking it was politics as usual. I am learning that when we have to explain why something isn’t racist; we already don’t understand. I don’t know if President Trump is racist or not. I presumed he was using the term China Virus to annoy the media and the Chinese leaders he is negotiating with. I now am respectfully asking our President to stop because it is received as a racist term by those in the Chinese American community – including one of my own children.

My son has previously shared how some whom he comes into contact with make racial slurs, but in the Spring of 2020, after being selected as one of the top 12 bartenders in the country, he went to the Big Apple, a city he loves and because he is Asian, had people moving away from him on the New York City Subway. One of the most diverse cities in the world and my son is being targeted because of the color of his skin and the slant of his eyes!

And then there is the increase in physical assaults on Asian-Americans. Did you know that ” …advocates found 300 news articles from throughout the country reporting attacks against Asian Americans during a roughly two-week period ending March 7.”
https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/03/21/coronavirus-attacks-against-asian-americans-reported-in-bay-area-and-beyond/

I have to speak out because one of my children could become the target of someone’s attack. I will be sending this to President Trump to ask that he do the Presidential thing and make a change to his rhetoric, to lead this country away from racism and bigotry. And I am asking each of you to consider your words and your deeds.

We will come through COVID-19. Let’s make sure we don’t use it as an excuse to attack someone based on their race or the color of their skin.

Always,

Beth

Falls Church, VA

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Where is the Moral Outrage? Why are Children in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East Not Given the Safer Polio Vaccine?

A funny thing happened on the way to the loss of religious liberty and parental rights in the United States this spring. The CDC and is public health colleagues kept everyone’s attention firmly focused on Measles, while they quietly published papers acknowledging that the oral polio vaccine continues to spread polio.   

In 2000, the World Health Organization Western Pacific Region declared Papua New Guinea (PNG) free of indigenous wild polio virus. PNG is one of 37 countries or regions with a wild polio-free certification.  As Bauri, et al reported in Notes from the Field (1)  in February 2019, the PNG National Department of Health confirmed an outbreak of poliomyelitis “caused by circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 1 (cVDPV1) following isolation of genetically linked virus form a patient with paralysis and non-household community contacts.”  A six- year old boy having received 2 doses of the Sabin oral polio vaccine (OPV), was identified as the ‘index patient’. Six months later, 26 confirmed cases of circulating vaccine-derived polio had been identified in nine of the 22 PNG provinces including 19 in children less than five years of age. 

Bauri also reports that the Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) Surveillance system is being improved in PNG and the 2018 surveillance found 7.0 per 100,000 persons under the age of 15 years with non-polio AFP compared with 0.8 in 2017.  Less than 50 percent of the cases of non-polio AFP were further evaluated through stool sampling.  There is also expressed concern due to the discovery of cVDPV1 (the vaccine strain poliovirus) in seven sewage samples in major urban environments in PNG.  CDC issued a level 2 Travel Health Notice for all travelers to PNG to be fully vaccinated against polio.

In March, Mbaeyi, et al, (2) published, Update on Vaccine-Derived Poliovirus Outbreaks – the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Horn of Africa, 2017-2018. The authors note the use of the live attenuated Sabin oral polio vaccine (OPV) has helped with the global eradication goals while also noted its use is resulting in the person to person transmission of vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) disease. VDPV disease presents with paralysis. 

Two months after this report, Green, et al (3) reported a paper entitled Progress Towards Polio Eradication in which the team recounts the success of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).  The program which began in 1988, the authors claim that wild poliovirus (WPV) transmission had been interrupted in all countries except Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan.  Apparently, there are now 3 Wild Polio Virus types.  WPV type 2 (WPV2) was declared eradicated in 2012 and WPV type 3 (WPV3) had not been detected since 2012.  Eight countries during the study period reported 210 cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (CVDPV) from 2017 to May 2019.   The eight countries (Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Somalia, and Syria).  Through concentrated international efforts, 1.8 billion doses of polio vaccines both oral and injected were allocated for use in 2017.

The authors note that the use of AFP Surveillance systems among children less than 15 years of age is how detection of polio cases occurs.  When a child develops AFP, a stool sample is tested.  If a child with either type of polio (wild or vaccine derived) does not present symptoms that include AFP, their case likely will not be detected or counted.  In 2017, 22 wild polio virus type 1 (WPV1) cases were reported in Afghanistan and Pakistan and in 2018 33 cases.  In the first quarter of 2019, 12 WPV1 cases were confirmed in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

All three of these papers discuss measures to curtail the spread of polio virus through increased immunizations. None discuss public health measures to decrease the risk through improvements in sewer systems and reducing the risk of transmission while the virus sheds, which all three report the discovery of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus in sewage systems. While vaccines are considered the second most important advance in public health, the first is clean water and effective sewer systems. Sadly these public health experts are ignoring the obvious additional measure needed.

It would seem that the CDC and WHO scientists have chosen not to inform the WHO Director-General because Dr. Tedros is quoted in a WHO bulletin, “My wish for 2019 is for zero polio transmission.” (4)

A time for moral outrage. None of these stories presents any discussion on a conversion to the IPV which is not likely to transmit poliovirus.  

My question is why? Why are we as a global community not willing to promote IPV world-wide?

Why haven’t Bill and Melinda Gates through their vaccine promotions in the Gates Foundation used their influence to help stop the spread of vaccine-derived polio? 

Twenty years ago the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended all polio virus vaccines administered in the United States ““be an inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) beginning January 1, 2000.”(5)  In the 1999 decision, it was reported, “Since 1979, the only indigenous cases of poliomyelitis reported in the United States (n=144) have been associated with use of the live oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) (an additional six imported cases have been reported since 1979, the last of which occurred in 1993).”(6)  The ACIP suggest the risk for vaccine-associated paralytic polio (VAPP) would be anticipated once in every 2.4 million doses distributed.

The spread of polio through the oral polio vaccine is well documented.  Burns, et all provide a detailed description of the issues in their 2014 paper, Vaccine-Derived Poliomyelitis. (7) They also note that the OPV can result in chronic polio infection.

In looking at this, I am reminded of the discussions before the Oversight Committee, at the State Department during the Mercury Treaty discussions and at numerous scientific and advisory committee meetings.  When Congressman Burton asked HHS to ‘get the mercury out’ and to set a preference for mercury-free (i.e. thimerosal) vaccines, he was told repeatedly that the United States could not make a recommendation or policy to promote mercury free vaccines in the United States and not do the same world-wide.  And yet, that is exactly what has been going on with polio since 1999.  So, CDC and others at the same time they were saying we must shift from OPV to IPV in the US for safety reasons, were unwilling to use the same strategy to accelerate the removal of thimerosal from vaccines.  And misrepresented this policy of needing to have some recommendations globally as domestically to Congress and the public.

Polio is one of those infectious diseases that freak people out.  The goal for 30 years has been to eradicate polio.  To succeed, maybe it is time to discuss a shift from OPV to IPV vaccines globally. I do not want to see the WHO continue their focus on discussing vaccine hesitancy as a condition to be diagnosed, but rather to talk about how to improve the safety of the vaccines administered globally and to incorporate into this discussion a need to make increased efforts to improve the availability of  safe, clean water and adequate sewage systems to reduce the transmission of all types of polio and other conditions such as cholera.  

Sources Cited

1.     Bauri M, Wilkinson AL, Ropa B, Feldon K, Snider CJ, Anand A, et al. Notes from the Field: Circulating Vaccine-Derived Poliovirus Type 1 and Outbreak Response – Papua New Guinea, 2018. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2019;68(5):119-20. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm6805a6. PubMed PMID: 30730867; PubMed Central PMCID: PMCPMC6366675 potential conflicts of interest. No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

2.    Mbaeyi C, Alleman MM, Ehrhardt D, Wiesen E, Burns CC, Liu H, et al. Update on Vaccine-Derived Poliovirus Outbreaks – Democratic Republic of the Congo and Horn of Africa, 2017-2018. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2019;68(9):225-30. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm6809a2. PubMed PMID: 30845121; PubMed Central PMCID: PMCPMC6421971 potential conflicts of interest. No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

3.    Greene SA, Ahmed J, Datta SD, Burns CC, Quddus A, Vertefeuille JF, et al. Progress Toward Polio Eradication – Worldwide, January 2017-March 2019. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2019;68(20):458-62. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm6820a3. PubMed PMID: 31120868; PubMed Central PMCID: PMCPMC6532951 potential conflicts of interest. No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

4.    Public health round-up. Bull World Health Organ. 2019;97(2):77-8. doi: 10.2471/BLT.19.010219. PubMed PMID: 30728612; PubMed Central PMCID: PMCPMC6357566.

5.     Centers for Disease C, Prevention. Updated recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) regarding routine poliovirus vaccination. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2009;58(30):829-30. PubMed PMID: 19661857.

6.    Centers for Disease C, Prevention. Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices: revised recommendations for routine poliomyelitis vaccination. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 1999;48(27):590. PubMed PMID: 10428098.

7.     Burns CC, Diop OM, Sutter RW, Kew OM. Vaccine-derived polioviruses. J Infect Dis. 2014;210 Suppl 1:S283-93. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiu295. PubMed PMID: 25316847.

Always,

Beth Clay, June 27, 2019

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Looking at the Suggested ‘Scarlet A’ for Unvaccinated Kids through the Lens of Ryan White

Today I saw a Facebook posting that reminded me of the 1980s and the 1640s.  The posting was one of many ill-informed, potentially fake and hate-filled railings against parents who have made a medical or religious decision not to vaccinate their child with the Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) vaccine.  This particular posting suggested that unvaccinated children should wear a skull and crossbones marking to identify them as unvaccinated.  The posting suggested it be on the child’s forehead, which is why I think it may have been a propaganda posting because hopefully no American actually posted something so egregious. I worry we are quickly devolving as a society over the measles matter.  I will not call 626 cases of measles in the US over the course of four months in a population of 330 million an epidemic because it is not. 

The Scarlet Letter: As the day went on, the comment stuck in my mind.  This is not the Boston of the 1640’s depicted in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Scarlet Letter” a work of fiction in which a woman is forced to wear the Scarlet “A” on her clothing to announce to all in the public that she is an adulteress. Can we even imagine an America in which everyone who for instance has speeding tickets has to wear on the front of their clothing a Scarlet “S” when in public; or someone who has a sexually transmitted disease has to wear a Black X.  As I write this, I am reminded of how Hitler forced people who were Jewish to declare their religion by wearing a Star of David on their jacket, setting them up for persecution and discrimination. Do we really want to persecute unvaccinated children?

Ryan White:  It is also not 1984 when a young boy named Ryan White developed HIV/AIDS from a blood transfusion he received to manage his hemophilia.  In 1985 after his Mom prevailed in court against the Kokomo, Indiana school district that had refused to allow Ryan to attend public school, Ryan shared how he was verbally abused and harassed.  If you are too young to remember HIV/AIDS in the 1980s and early 1990s and how the public and politicians treated those who were infected, it is not one of those times we as a nation can be proud of.  Many from school officials, to politicians, to families and the general public who feared the ‘unknowns’ associated with HIV/AIDS, stood in judgement of those who contracted the disease from sexual activity especially if they were gay men.  Ryan’s case was different, he was a teenager who did nothing ‘wrong’ in the eyes of society.  He was young, middle class, white, and from the Heartland of our country.  He could have been the young boy next door to any of us.  I remember discussions about Ryan and the fear that he might infect classmates. This was about the same time there was a circulating story that the government could not rule out that if a mosquito was flying around and landed on and drew blood from an HIV/AIDS infected individual; and then flew off and landed on someone else that they would not infect that second individual.  The fear of just being in the room with someone with HIV was real. 

In the early 1990s, after having worked with Dr. Richard Krause, the former Director of the NIAID during those early HIV days; I learned a great deal about our ‘microbial’ world. He had retired from the NIH to go to Emory; which proved not to be a good fit for him, so he returned to the NIH as a Senior Scientist at the Fogarty International Center where I got to know him.  In 2005, in the tribute that Dr. Krause wrote about his friend Mac McCarty, the “last survivor of the three-man team that demonstrated that genes are made of DNA” (and not protein as many originally thought). Dr. Krause quoted Dr. McCarty’s paper, “The 1944 paper on pneumococcal transformation begins: “Biologists have long attempted by chemical means to induce in higher organisms predictable and specific changes which thereafter could be transmitted in series as hereditary characters.” All that, and then some, has come to pass: witness the human genome, recombinant DNA technology, and genetically engineered animals that produce complex proteins such as human antibodies.”(1)

In 1968 and 1971, Dr. Krause and his colleagues’ studying rabbits and immune response to immunization reported:

“A number of variables are known to influence the magnitude of the immune response including the chemical and physical nature of the antigen, the method of immunization, prior sensitization to the same or a similar antigen, and the genetic background of the animal. Furthermore, these factors may either amplify or limit the wide variability in the characteristics of the immune globulins which are produced.” (2)

“Certain rabbits immunized with streptococcal and pneumococcal vaccines produce high concentrations of antibodies to the carbohydrate antigens.  These antibodies may have a remarkable molecular uniformity, and studies on their primary structure are currently underway. Since only a small percentage of random-bred rabbits produced uniform antibodies in quantities which were sufficient for extensive structural studies selective breeding of these special rabbits was begun in order to increase the number of rabbits which respond in this way.” (3)

Scientists like Dr. Krause recognize that the different rabbits responded differently to the vaccines they were studying based on several factors including genetics and prior exposures. His 1971 report focused on increasing the stock of animals that would be useful in research; however, the two papers highlight key factors that can be translated to our understanding of the human response to vaccines – different people respond differently based on numerous factors including genetics, environmental factors, and prior exposures.

It is why we cannot have a one sized fits all vaccine program.

It’s About Preserving Rights:  One of the reasons I am vocal about the rights of parents to make medical decisions whether to or not to vaccinate is because I believe in liberty.  I also believe in religious liberty. Our nation was founded on the premise of liberty.  I have twice sworn an oath to protect and preserve the Constitution. It is not an oath that ended when I left government service. We must stand together and protect parental rights and religious liberty. I did not get involved in investigating the state of our vaccine policies in the United States, and concerns about vaccine injury because someone I loved suffered a serious reaction to a vaccine, but initially because it was my job.  I stayed engaged when it was no longer my job because it is a moral obligation to continue seeking truth and justice. 

Doesn’t the MMR Vaccine Protect the Vaccinated? Government authorities, Merck the vaccine manufacturer in the United States and doctors who appear on television promoting vaccines all say that the MMR is great. The public has been told that the vaccine is safe and effective. If the vaccine is everything that it is promoted to be, given the high immunization rates nation-wide the herd immunity public health officials promote as the goal to protect those who cannot be vaccinated has been met.

The suggestion that parents who have obtained medical or religious exemptions to measles (MMR) vaccination must be forced to vaccinate their child to protect those who can’t be vaccinated is a perverse view of public health.  Parents with children too young to be vaccinated, or with medical conditions that preclude getting the MMR have suggested that their rights to take their child out in public during an outbreak is more important than the rights of parents of unvaccinated children. They seem to ignore the reality that the MMR is a live virus vaccine and can shed measles virus (as well as Mumps and Rubella) for months after given.  We do not know if the increased number of measles cases in the US in 2019 is at all related to vaccine strain measles because so far, there are no journalists asking the tough questions, like whether or not those diagnosed with measles have been tested to confirm the strain of measles, to determine if it was brought in from Israel, Honduras, or the Philippines or if it originated in the US from wild-type measles. So far public health authorities have failed to report if they are testing and if so to make those test rules public.

I would suggest that it is the responsibility of the parents of a child who is unvaccinated because of age or medical condition to protect that child.  It is not your neighbor’s job to protect your child, nor the parent of another child, but yours.  Measles is not the bubonic plaque. It can be deadly but typically is not.  And even if Measles was a deadly disease in the US in 2019, taking away the rights of others, labeling unvaccinated children so they can be discriminated against and bullied is not the answer. Demonizing the parents, advocates, and medical professionals who speak out about vaccine injury and call for improved quality and a restoration of parental rights is not the answer.  And it is not the fault of Dr. Andrew Wakefield! (The misinformation campaign about Andy is a story for another day.)

Is our Nation Lost?  Our civilized society is devolving quickly into a nation that bullies parents, threatens $1,000 fines and jail for the failure of parents to compromise religious belief and vaccinate their child. Local and national media outlets dutifully report about the measles outbreak and shame parents who have not vaccinated.  I have seen repeatedly reporters on Fox News who promote themselves as conservatives, and anti-abortion shame parents for not giving their kids the MMR vaccine without acknowledging (or maybe oblivious to the reality) that the MMR is produced on two cell lines developed from tissue that was taken two aborted human fetuses. Can you be anti-abortion and pro-MMR?  I  have watched some of my favorite local media anchors (who happen to be African American) push the vaccine without acknowledging the CDC Whistleblower who saved the data covered up by his colleagues in the Atlanta MMR study that showed a statistically significant increased risk of autism to African American boys based on the timing of the vaccine (before 36 months).  I have yet to see a single outlet have a true discussion that is fair and balanced. Where are the interviews with parents of kids who were injured by the MMR and compensated in the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program?  It is as if investigative journalism has been banned when it comes to the measles outbreak. The power of Merck and the pharmaceutical industry to control news stories is real.  Think about all the moneys the networks make at local and national level from drug ads.

Is the great experiment of our Constitutional Republic going to be lost because our federal government in the 1980s took away the rights of parents to sue Merck, the maker of the MMR and to sue the doctor, nurse, or pharmacist who injected the vaccine only to have that assault on civil liberty compounded by forced vaccination by the state and local authorities?

Ryan White’s legacy with HIV/AIDS turned out not to just be about getting to attend public school.  His legacy lives on every year at the NIH where it is mandated that each agency track how much money is spent on HIV/AIDS. He short life lives on every time we fight against discrimination and bullying.  And his legacy lives on when we promote the rights of every citizen.

It is my hope that we can move past the fear-mongering and hysteria, the name-calling and divisiveness of the propaganda campaigns online and in the news and in statehouses across the country.

Always,

Beth

Sources Cited

1.         Krause RM. Obituary: Maclyn McCarty (1911-2005). Nature. 2005;433(7024):372. doi: 10.1038/433372a. PubMed PMID: 15674278.

2.         Braun DG, Eichmann K, Krause RM. Rabbit antibodies to streptococcal carbohydrates. Influence of primary and secondary immunization and of possible genetic factors on the antibody response. J Exp Med. 1969;129(4):809-30. PubMed PMID: 5766948; PubMed Central PMCID: PMCPMC2138622.

3.         Eichmann K, Braun DG, Krause RM. Influence of genetic factors on the magnitude and the heterogeneity of the immune response in the rabbit. J Exp Med. 1971;134(1):48-65. PubMed PMID: 5558071; PubMed Central PMCID: PMCPMC2139032.

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Lessons on Faith From My Two Fathers

God, my Father in Heaven sent me a father on earth. I am a daughter in both their images. My father on earth- my dad gave me characteristic features such as my high forehead and distinctive Clay family nose. My Father in Heaven gave me a heart that beats to keep my body alive, while it also feels emotions to keep my soul alive. 

God, my Father in Heaven, gave me eyes to see, while my father on earth taught me to use my eyes to see a person not just as they appear, but as they are beyond the surface. God granted me discernment; Dad taught me how to discern. God granted me intelligence, and Dad taught me to always seek knowledge.

God my Father in Heaven teaches ‘And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength…’ and he teaches, ‘Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’

Just as I have always known my Father in Heaven loves me even when I am disobedient, obstinate, and willful; I have always known that my father on earth loves me as I am, imperfect, willful, and stubborn. God’s love is ever present, even though I cannot see Him. Through the years, and the miles apart, Dad, my father on earth’s love has never been in doubt.  I know he loves me, as sure as I know that just as God gave his Son to the world as our Redeemer. Love is an energy that cannot be destroyed.  Love transcends time, space, and dimensions.

As my father on earth transcended this dimension to join my Father in Heaven, the greatest lesson in faith is delivered. God teaches us to have faith in what is unseen, and my Dad has gone from seen to unseen when he passed from this world.

And yet, he is not gone, he is moving from one mountain top to the highest of mountain tops. Dad’s physical decline is no more, he is exalted to join his father and mother, his sister and brother and my brothers in Heaven. The love a daughter feels for her Father on earth and heaven can never be separated, just as it is written in Roman’s, ‘Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’

Just as God said, “Be Still and Know that I am God;” I can pause, be still and know that my Father lives.  

Beth Clay – April 2019

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