LATE AUTUMN SIXTY YEARS LATER

 

Memories, Olathe, KS

I stumbled upon a small treasure trove of yellow tinged type written papers while sorting out saved relics of the past.  The earliest hand written one involved a dream I had as a boy about The Last Day.  The remainder must have been written during my college days, perhaps for English classes or just for myself.

 One titled Alone was about a man with an airplane that found himself the lone survivor of an apocalyptic nuclear world war (The first two atomic bombs were used not long after I was born).  This copy was typed without revisions and had a nice red “A” at the top.  The others must have been first drafts with hand written revisions.  Another titled Tempest of the Kerkyons involved the nightly activities of a group of young men who were involved in a high-speed car crash.  The title came from a fictional book on a rite of passage for young men in ancient Crete Minoan courtyards of tempting fate by jumping over charging bulls.  

One typed draft I had saved titled Late Autumn involved “The soft light of a harvest moon and a quaint old man who was quietly sitting on a park bench engrossed in his private world of memories”.  That one was a bit of a show stopper because it was almost prophetic.  Had I actually been writing about my own future sixty years ago?  I have a meditation bench by my Lenten Rose Garden.   

“His solemn face calmly witnessed the placid environment while the moonlight sharply contrasted his soft white hair with the dark complexion of his shadowed face.  He was thinking of his wife now.”  “One fall night, very much like tonight he had met Mary.  The light illuminated her fair complexion and accented her youthful smile.  His weary face slowly formed a picture of contentment and joy as he remembered her as she had been that night.”  “He had known then that she was the one thing which life could hold for him.  Apparently, she had sensed it too, and they were married later in a quiet chapel on the outskirts of the big city.”   

And that was almost the way life went down, except that her name turned out to be Karen.

ON THE OTHER SIDE

Charlie at the Door, JUMC, NC

 I took this photo of our security guard Glenn’s dog Charlie as Glenn had stepped inside our Fellowship Hall to secure the doors after this morning’s services.  Charlie was quietly laying down outside the hall, but quickly rose to wait outside the doors for his master.  He didn’t move a muscle until Glenn opened the doors to exit.

That image immediately called to mind a story I had read years ago and it perfectly illustrated that story.  As I recall, a sick man was inside an examination room with his doctor who had just revealed that the man had a terminal illness.  The patient remarked that he hadn’t spent much of his life trying to understand God or even contemplating what is on the other side of this mortal life.  So, he asked the doctor for his opinion.

The doctor put his hand on the room’s door handle and they heard a whining and scratching on the other side.  When the doctor opened the door, his dog jumped up to greet him.  Then the doctor remarked, “I don’t know a lot about what’s on the other side, but I have faith that my Master is there with open arms and that is enough.”   

Join us at JUMC every Sunday morning behind the outside doors to learn more about the Master on the other side!

SERVING OTHERS

Washing Feet & Serving Others in a Pandemic

I recently read a short and sweet phrase on “serving” while facilitating an adult class on How Happiness Happens by Max Lucado.  He summarized the process of serving others this way: “Doing good does the doer good!”  In fact, if we’re serving others that have no hope of repaying us, we’re doing God’s work.  If we’re expecting something in return, we’re doing business!

My wife Karen and I volunteered to participate in a community mission effort a number of years ago. We gathered as a group in our JUMC Fellowship Hall and were given an assignment for the day to make a difference in our community. And before we all departed, our Bishop gave us a rather daunting instruction. We were challenged to “see Jesus along the way”.

We ended up working with a retired law officer who was trying to offer after school assistance to elementary school children. He had received a large number of books from a major school supply company that desperately needed to be organized. In the course of spending the day with this man, we got to know him better and understand that his heart was in the right place, but his resources were woefully lacking. After the kids arrived later, he slipped outside and grilled dinner for all of us on a small charcoal grill.

When we returned to JUMC for a debriefing, I was able to confirm that we had indeed seen Jesus that day in the form of a man that had seen too much suffering and pain in his community and sought to do something positive about it at its core.

Later, our church was able to initiate an Agape initiative at an elementary school in that community which funded and staffed after school care.

I had been helping a young second grade boy with reading a Christmas book and another about a pig that outfoxed a fox in our after-school mission.  He actually didn’t need much assistance except for just a few foreign words. When a woman with similar features appeared to pick up one of the children, I noticed that the boy was gathering his backpack and putting on his winter coat. So, I approached her and mentioned that he had done a very good job of reading two books to me today. She asked if I was from the church and I acknowledged that I was.

She then thanked me for helping her family have a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas with the donations that had been sent home with every child before the school break. Her eyes revealed a true sincerity. Without giving my response much thought I mentioned that it was all in the spirit of Christmas and it was a two-way street. I had experienced a much better holiday season this year because we were able to provide the interaction, presents and food. And it was especially gratifying to observe that this woman was able to see Jesus through the efforts of the people at our church.