Because I am a distracted and disorganized fool, I had not stopped by Julie’s website in a few days, and I missed the news that her father had passed away.

Julie’s father was a determined atheist who wanted no part of God, and in the past year she has written many moving posts about her prayers that his heart might be touched and turned. I urge you to read her “Family” category when you have some time to spend, to see what she learned and how things progressed for many, during that time.

As I wrote to Julie, it sounds like her father -thanks to the countless loving prayers of his daughter, and also by virtue of that miraculous “thing” that happens when we come together to be with our loved ones as they die, that beautiful, nameless “thing” that if we embrace it, completely transforms everything- indeed has a toehold in purgatory.

Julie writes in her piece:

Good works to be sure but nothing exalted. Except that, not seeing with God’s eyes, those experiences are exactly what enabled me to have such a perspective that I could say to my father before I left, “When you die and see God holding out His hand, take it and go with Him. You can’t imagine the love and happiness there and I want you to have it.”

Not exactly words I ever imagined myself saying to my father. Or him crying with me and saying, “I will!”

A toehold in purgatory or a big toe stuck into the path of Grace; it is all her father needs, for Julie to eventually meet her in heaven.

And since we do not know the mind of God, or comprehend His ways, for all we know, he is already there.

If you are so inclined, stop by Julie’s place, to condole. And then consider how messy and good is the path of faith.