{"id":10932,"date":"2018-04-10T09:42:53","date_gmt":"2018-04-10T14:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/?p=10932"},"modified":"2018-04-09T15:38:57","modified_gmt":"2018-04-09T20:38:57","slug":"one-decade-seems-very-short-in-eternity-really-long-around-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/?p=10932","title":{"rendered":"One Decade Seems Very Short In Eternity, Really Long Around Here"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ten years have passed since my father died. Lest anyone forget his name, it is Oliver Joseph Courtemanche, Junior. He was never a &#8220;junior&#8221; in my world, he was always him.<\/p>\n<p>In the ten years that have gone by, a lot of things have taken place that he can only view from Heaven. The list is significant:<\/p>\n<p>He has a new granddaughter, Jane. She&#8217;s a bright, sweet girl with more than a touch of him in her makeup.<\/p>\n<p>His wife continues to love him. She&#8217;s not moved on, but has moved into a new phase of her life. She travels, plays cards, does yoga, and house-sits dogs for neighbors. All-in-all, I think she&#8217;d give it all up to have him back.<\/p>\n<p>All of his children are now in their 50&#8217;s. None of them were at the time he died.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/dad.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/dad.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"120\" height=\"125\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-10935\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We have seen the presidency change over twice since he died.<\/p>\n<p>We have been at war constantly in those ten years.<\/p>\n<p>His oldest son is now a published author, and his youngest is a college professor. The other two are successful in their fields. None of us is in prison. (See, Mom, I told you I was behaving!)<\/p>\n<p>All of the families have changed domestic pets. None that he knew are still with us.<\/p>\n<p>The internet plays a much bigger role in our lives. <\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/follow?original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fcommotioninthepews.com%2F&amp;screen_name=joecourtemanche&amp;tw_p=followbutton&amp;variant=2.0\">Please follow me on Twitter<\/a>, and <a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/josephcourtemancheauthor\">&#8220;Like&#8221; the Facebook author page<\/a>. Don&#8217;t forget to subscribe (the box is on the right side of the page) to be eligible for free e-books and other benefits! Oh yeah &#8211; <a style=\"color: #3366ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/?page_id=9219\" target=\"_blank\">grab a copy of <em>Assault on Saint Agnes <\/em><\/a>if you&#8217;re of a mind.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Most of all, during the past ten years, while we continue on without him, he&#8217;s at the side of God. <\/p>\n<p>For those of you without strong religious beliefs, the next few lines may be a surprise. But I will proclaim them in full confidence of their truth.<\/p>\n<p>My dad, for whatever his faults were, was a man of faith. He firmly believed in the divinity of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n<p>I am a man of faith, I firmly believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n<p>I am sad for my mom and siblings, as I know they feel the loss of my father deeply.<\/p>\n<p>I do not mourn my father, as I am sure he is in Heaven. There is no pain, no emphysema, no ruptured blood vessel, no illness in that place. Only glory and bliss.<\/p>\n<p>My father&#8217;s final words were, &#8220;I think I see Jesus.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He saw where he was going. I know I will meet him there someday. <\/p>\n<p>Good enough for me. You see, that ten years has kind of dragged on this planet, but in Heaven it is an eye-blink. <\/p>\n<p>Dad, we&#8217;ll be there before we know it. And since that&#8217;s the literal truth, we&#8217;d better all prepare now. I&#8217;ll introduce you when we all get there. <\/p>\n<p>********* ********** *********** ***********<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\">When you finish reading any book (especially mine) please review it at www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com, and www.goodreads.com. Your review increases the chances of someone looking for a new book greatly. Authors appreciate your review, even if it is just &#8220;I thought this was a good read and will give it to my dog to chew. I especially liked the ending, because it made me feel better when he killed all of the main characters. (no spoilers, please)&#8221; Those few words (more than 20, fewer than 1,000 is ideal), and a 1-5 rating, make or break how the search engines find us. Thanks in advance.<\/span><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ten years have passed since my father died. Lest anyone forget his name, it is Oliver Joseph Courtemanche, Junior. He was never a &#8220;junior&#8221; in my world, he was always him. In the ten years that have gone by, a <span class=\"excerpt-dots\">&hellip;<\/span> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/?p=10932\"><span class=\"more-msg\">Continue reading &rarr;<\/span><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4980,1253,1],"tags":[167,6089,829,162,6088],"class_list":["post-10932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assault-on-saint-agnes","category-love-2","category-uncategorized","tag-commotion-in-the-pews","tag-divinity-of-jesus-christ","tag-heaven","tag-joseph-courtemanche","tag-oliver-joseph-courtemanche"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10932"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10938,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10932\/revisions\/10938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}