November 11, 2002
CYBERCOLUMN:
Goings-on at church
___By John Duncan
___I am sitting here under the old oak tree, giving thanks. For one, I have a new red oak tree in my backyard courtesy of Jody, Carla and Paul Butler. Thanks for the tree. I can sit under it in days of sunshine and days of dripping rain and muse deep thoughts about bizarre things. I can mull over life and the ministry, over faith and God, wondering into the night about how people make it without God, or how God makes it with us. Anyway, thanks so much. Or in the words of the psalmist, "I will give thanks to God with my whole heart" (Psalm 9:1).
___ Other than a season of thanks there's not much going on near the old oak tree. There is, however, a lot of stuff happening around the church
. Erma lost her lens out of her eyeglasses last Sunday, but found it Monday still on the seat where she sat. Life delivers wondrous discoveries. "I can't see without my glasses these days," she announced. I'll call it Erma's wisdom: She might not be able to see without her eyeglasses, but with or without glasses, she sees life with wisdom because of her faith. Erma sees more than most of us. Erma keeps us "seeing" around the church. Every church needs an Erma.
___ Here around the church, we had a wedding. The preacher united in marriage Ryan and Crystal. The girls wore beautiful blue dresses, and the guys wore black tuxedos. Glitter sparkled on the dresses, and the guys look dazzling with bow ties. The flower girl stole the show, dropping white rose pedals to clear a rose speckled path for the bride. Parents shed tears, and everybody smiled for the guy taking pictures. Weddings glitter the earth with joy. I pray their marriage dances with joy. They will move to Maryland. Do we not live in the age of mobility?
___Here around the church, we have had funerals. C.E. Brown died. He announced to me 13 years ago at the age of 63 that God called him to preach when he was in his forties. "Preacher, I just gotta tell ya," he would always start his sentences with those words, "I felt called to preach 20 years ago." I did not know how to handle such a statement, so I prayed and we prayed and asked God to help C.E. start a church. He started Brazos River Baptist Church. The little church grew, and C.E. was never happier. He died at 75 years of age. Life goes smoother and brings cheer when you follow God's call. I will miss C.E.
___ Then Linda Marsh's mother died. Her name was Ann Weeks. She contracted pancreatic cancer. Doctors poked and prodded and did one of those expensive tests and then made her wait anxiously for a few days. She returned to the doctor to receive the test results. The doctor put his hand on her shoulder, pursed his lips and delivered the news: "Mrs. Weeks, I don't have good news for you. You have pancreatic cancer." He explained what that meant and then comforted her. She understood his message and knew she would soon die.
___ "How long is it gonna take?" she quizzed, asking, of course, how long before death comes. Or eternal life begins.
___ "Well," the doctor replied, "it won't be today and it won't be tomorrow, but the good Lord is fluffing your pillow."
___ "I'm ready," she said, "I've got a lot of people I've got to see." She whispered of heaven. C.S. Lewis once whispered of heaven, "Heaven will solve our problems, but not, I think, by showing us subtle reconciliations between all our apparently contradictory notions. The notions will be knocked under our feet. We shall see that there never was a problem."
___God fluffed her pillow and prepared a mansion for her (John 14:1-6) and called her home and that because of heaven there never was a problem. She left a note saying this, "When God takes me home, which I hope is a long time from today I want to be in the cemetery next to Willie (father of my children). Bury me in my pajamas selected from the blue suitcase. Open casket or closed (your choice). All my love goes …"
___ Ann never signed her name. Why sign it when the people you love know all your love goes to them?
___ We buried her in a cemetery next to Willie in Mexia. The cemetery holds the tombs of numerous Civil War heroes. Dicky Flatt of the famed politician Phil Gramm's "Dicky Flatt Test" (How will this political decision affect a guy like Dickie Flatt?) showed up for the funeral. He runs a print shop in Mexia. One local instructed me to drive by the local fried chicken outfit because Anna Nicole Smith used to work there. I even drove by Ann's home place for most of her life—a white frame house with a green roof on 910 Hunt Street where a playground for the grandkids still stands in the backyard. We buried Ann in her pajamas in a casket on a fluffy pillow. Her love still goes.
___ And finally, here around the church not too far on Sunflower Street, Pearlie sits in her recliner. She too has cancer, and a tube pokes a hole in her throat. She talks with a rasp. Doctors tell us it will not be long now before cancer takes her, too. "Welcome, Pearlie, to the pearly gates," Saint Peter soon will say. She's ready, she's ready. She told me so after we prayed just the other day. I think God is fluffing her pillow even now.
___ There's not much else going on around the church except children on the playground and the printing of the church newsletter and plans for weddings and funerals. Erma's down the hall volunteering to fold the newsletters and spinning wisdom. I sure am glad she found her glass lens. I need to call and check on Jane Brown and Linda Marsh and see how they're doing in the shadows of grief. I need to get the tires changed on my car. And God fluffs a few pillows. The sun shines today, and life drops many a feather that tickles the nose and softens the heart.
___ John Duncan is pastor of Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury, Texas, and the writer of numerous articles in various journals and magazines.
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