A DAD’S ONLY SON

By:  Mark Lucky Edwards

“He who receives this testimony has certified that God is true.”

(John 3:33)

God has left behind His Word, the Bible, which I stand on as being true in its entirety.  Yes, I confess that Jesus is Lord, and my Lord and Savior.  Jesus came into this world in the flesh, is righteous, carried His cross, and shed His precious blood washing away all our sins.  Thank you, Lord, today and forever; for by His blood, our sins have been forgiven; and by His stripes, we are healed.  Jesus, oh Jesus, there is no testimony greater than the Son of the living God, the Son whom the heavenly Father, our God, raised from the dead.  It is true, and I believe that God can do all things.

Now I do have a testimony.  My testimony is that I am alive!  Let me say that God, yes God, brought me out of many trials and tribulations.  When I was a child, I did childish things.  I started drinking alcohol at a young age of about 14.  I owned my first car when I was 9, and had people driving me around.  I thought this was the thing to do until I got tall enough to see where and when to turn, and to reach the brake and gas pedals.  Imagine that!  Consequently, I became very big-headed and people couldn’t tell me anything.  I was just having fun.  I was going to Lincoln Elementary School about seven blocks from where we were living at the time.  Kids were tripping; even I was tripping because I was so spoiled, always wanting, and usually getting my own way.  As I got older, I continued to think everything was about me, my way or no way.  I tried smoking cigarettes and drinking, not knowing what I was doing really.  I was just being a follower, doing what my friends were doing.

Now I understand that because I was doing all the wrong things at that age; I ended up in Juvenile Hall, and then at Byron Boys Ranch for a serious nine months.  Although I did the nine months, I kept getting in trouble and so I lost all my “good time.”  I tripped out and escaped.  I ended up staying out for three years; but then at the age of eighteen, I got caught and ended up in Martinez County Jail and sent to Clayton from there.  When I was released a year later, people kept telling me to stay out of prison.  They said if I was to go back in, my escape would always come up and cause me difficulties.

As everyone knows, when one gets out of jail, it’s time to start partying.  My drinking and smoking began and I did things that I was not supposed to do; but, I did anyway.  By this time, I had a girlfriend named Tootsie who was like my shadow.  Everywhere I went, she went.  Tootsie loved Jesus and before I knew it, we were lovers and had a little girl named Marquita.  Our relationship was good; but true to form, I had to play and ended up with another woman, Donna, who also became my girlfriend.  We had a child, a boy by the named Mark Jr. III.  So my two children are 5 months apart.  What did my playing get me here on earth?  Today, I am a father of a girl and boy, and the grandfather of six.

My playing did not stop there.  I was still partying; and one night after drinking, I had an accident almost hitting an old man.  When I heard him cursing me, I pulled over, jumped out of the car, and tried to fight this O.G. who stabbed me just below the heart.  At first I didn’t know I had been stabbed; but once I did, the dance was over.  I was just short of breath.  The police came and because I had my nephew with me, I gave him my car keys.  By then an ambulance had come, but the wound was dangerously close to my heart which meant I would need surgery.  The ambulance crew knew that Brookside Hospital couldn’t perform the surgery; and because time was short, I had to go to John Muir Hospital and fast.  I was lifted up in a helicopter.  I remember trying to go to sleep, but kept being awakened by a nurse saying, “Mark, don’t go to sleep.”  The pain was too much.  I just wanted to die.  I remember saying to them, “Just let me die.  Please let me die.”  The next time I woke up, someone told me, “Mark, you need surgery.  Will you okay the surgery?”  I said, “Yes, hurry up!”  I do recall them hurriedly rolling me to the surgery room.

I awakened three days later, wrapped in tape around my back and chest.  The first person I saw was my dad who looked at me with a smile that made me smile.  I didn’t know at the time that I had died, that my heart had stopped at least four times.  God had seen me through this one, and all the other life-threatening accidents I had ever suffered.  I had eighty-seven stitches stapled down my chest and four stitches an inch away from my heart.  The doctors had to open my chest to get to the wound.  I thank God for His everlasting love.  I have given Him alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, and crack cocaine; and, He accepted me as I was.  I have not used drugs or alcohol in ten years.  Thank You Lord!

Family, give it to God for He will take it.

“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood

as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a

man, I put away childish things.”

(1 Corinthians 13:11)

Thank you Mother Jackson, a mighty woman of God.  I thank you Kathleen for your help and support.

God bless us all,

Brother Mark