May 3, 1986
11:07 A.M.
Into each
life come those special days that are so extra that they stand out in bold face
against the millions of lovely things that make up the total experience of
life.
Some of these experiences cause us
to laugh, some cause us to cry; some make the sun shine through the rain and
some just fill us with so much joy and happiness that we can hardly contain it.
I am a man
most blessed to date.
My life is yet
only a snap of the fingers in time.
Yet
in my short life I have enjoyed experiences, and felt pain and happiness, so
often and in such depth that only God, and those who love me and whom I love,
can begin to share those experiences.
And only God and I really know how each of these encounters and occasions
has touched this man.
I have had
the privilege of courting and marrying and sharing 42 years with the most
special and precious woman in creation.
I have shared with her and with God, the privilege of creating new lives
for God’s Kingdom and to help replenish the human family.
I have suffered and shared with her the
heartache of the death and burial of our first born, and known the hope that we
will see him again in eternity.
I have shared
the joys and sorrows and the good health and the sicknesses of our other three
children.
I have watched them all grow
to maturity and led by God’s Holy Spirit, each one has been born anew in Jesus
Christ, which assures that we will all be together in eternity.
I have shared, as all three of them have in
their own self-reliance and with God’s help, completed their college education
and become useful and conscientious citizens, with deep concerns and firm
dedication to being lights in the increasing darkness of the world.
I have
shared the joy and companionship of my three children, together and
each in turn.
And God has given me a
son-in-law that has become a blessed son and another companion and a full
part of my life.
I have
shared the joys and pains of a number of very special people who have become a
very part of me.
God has given me great
love and a compassion for all people, but with a few he has permitted me a
closeness and a bond that is so powerful and so complete that I inwardly (and
sometimes outwardly) weep when they weep, laugh when they laugh, share and care
completely in their ups and downs, their likes and dislikes, their heavens and
their hells.
I
appreciate a cool walk in the winter snow; a moonlight walk along a sandy
beach, or lying beneath a metal roof in a rainstorm.
I enjoy watching the freedom of the birds as
they fly and at times I have flown alone in one of man’s aircraft and have become
one of the birds, soaring and climbing and turning and thrilling to the pure
joy of being a bird.
Only those who love
to fly can appreciate the fullness of the pleasure that becomes mine when I am
up in the sky and am no longer just guiding an airplane, but instead that
machine has become an extension of myself and I am completely the man-bird.
I love to
watch children play and listen to their laughter.
I enjoy being with young people.
I show them my love and they often show me
love in return.
I love to visit with
older people.
They have lived so much
and if I but truly listen, and not let their repetitions and their
forgetfulness bother me; I learn many things and add fullness to my life and
pleasure and joy to theirs.
How sad
that so many folks do not pause to smell the flowers.
Today I smelled a few.
I watched the early sunshine glistening on
the dew, I watched two robins mate in the meadow outside my window, I watched a
gopher hiding behind a pile of horse-dung, hoping I didn’t see him; I hugged by
wife and each of my four children several times, I untied a knot in my shoelace
and thanked God for the sunshine, the robins, the gopher, my wife, my children
and my fingernails.
I drove my car, and
it too is an extension of my being.
I
said hi to a number of friends and family and hugged all who wanted to be
hugged.
I administered the commissioning
oath to my son as he accepted a commission as a second lieutenant into the
United States Air Force.
A few years of
happiness slipped out on me as I looked with humble pride at this new air force
officer, whom God had given me as a son.
Tomorrow he will graduate with an electrical engineering degree.
My first, my second and now my third.
All, with God’s help and
grace, very special people. . .
. . .And I
thanked God again.
No drug culture, no
shoplifting; no trouble with police, no disrespect for law and government, no
disrespect for their Father and Mother, no . . .
No, not
perfect. . .but caring. . .and I wondered why so often young people go wrong
who have parents just as concerned as Bernadine and I, and I thanked God again
for His Grace.
I ate
dinner with five wonderful people.
We
made it a celebration of my son’s commissioning and his graduation.
The food was good; the fellowship
better.
We talked and visited and my
love reached out to Bernadine, and my children; and then
bounced right back until my cup was full and running over.
When one gets six people that full of love together,
I guess all of the cups run over.
And,
too, it’s the little things, a “hi” from my younger daughter a “What cha doing, dad” from
my son, a hug from my older daughter, a hand slipped into mine from Bernadine, a “What’s up”
from my son-in-law, and phone calls from friends.
All day
today I smelled the flowers.
I even
enjoyed an audience of 8 children and two friends as I hived a swarm of bees,
which (bees) were hanging in an azalea bush.
And when the bees were moving into the hive I smelled the azaleas and
examined the yellow blossoms, and the pale green leaves and the segmented
stems, and the small cluster of bees still clinging on the one limb.
And then as
I turned away, and as darkness began to close in, I noticed a dead bee, deep
within one of the bell shaped flowers.
And I said out loud, “Certainly you, my friend, have not gone through
life without smelling the flowers.”
11:07
PM
