LXXX

FOR ALL HAVE SINNED, AND COME SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD

ROMANS 3:23

SEVENIA SALLIE (GIRL PROPHETESS)

“I’m too old for this,” Captain Kirk mumbled as he sat at his kitchen table with a shoe box under his arm. He pointed at a chair, silently instructing me to join him. I was a little surprised. Knowing the beloved Pastor as I did, I thought he would be waiting for me on his front step. Instead, as soon as I pulled into his driveway, he waved me into his house.

I had offered to drive the good Captain to Hannibal, Missouri. A woman who lived there had a connection to a soldier, Corporal Timothy Williams, who the Pastor knew during the Vietnam war when he was an army chaplain. Said woman, Susan Nelson, was the younger sister of the soldier’s fiancée, Sherry Drummond.

Unfortunately, Corporal Williams lost his life in battle. Several days later, and only hours after Captain Kirk spent an afternoon talking with her, Sherry had ended her life with a combination of sleeping pills and carbon monoxide poisoning.

Susan, Sherry’s sister, had only one personal encounter with the good Captain. Susan was an adamant protestor of the war, and she was rather unfriendly to the Pastor when he first came to see her sister Sherry. After Sherry’s death, he spoke with Susan on the phone only once, in which she angrily blamed him for Sherry’s death. That was fifty years ago, a half century, and they hadn’t communicated since. Then a few days ago, Captain Kirk received a letter from Susan’s son, Roger Nelson.

The letter informed the good Pastor that Susan had a child fathered by Corporal Timothy Williams. This baffled Pastor at first, since Sherry was the Corporal’s fiancée, not Susan. The letter also said that Susan had some type of illness. She wished to speak with the former army chaplain as soon as possible, preferably in person. She offered to have her son drive her up to see him. Due to her undisclosed illness, the good Pastor called Roger and he offered to come to Susan instead. He accepted the offer gratefully.

Captain Kirk handed me an old photo of two soldiers. “Is one of these men Williams?”

“Yes, the other one is me,” he replied.

My jaw dropped and my eyes returned to the photo like a magnet. “Pastor, you had a full head of dark hair and are clean shaven!”

He chuckled. “Do you think I was born an old man?”

I laughed as my eyes aimed at his thin white hair and then lowered to his long white beard. “Actually, I think I did. I at least figured you were born with a beard.”

I was overjoyed as we spent the next twenty minutes looking at old photos. For him being such a loving, social person, he was actually a very private man when it came to talking about  himself. I felt privileged to have him share a bit of his history with me.

“Thanks, Grandpa!” I said when he put the lid back on the shoe box.

He gazed at me under his thick white brows. “How come you started calling me grandpa?”

“I’m sorry,” I said, suddenly feeling shy and embarrassed.

“No, no, kiddo,” he said with a warm smile, and giving my hand a squeeze. “I like it. Actually I love it. But why? Did it have anything to do with me telling Marcy she could call me grandpa if she wanted to?”

“I guess so,” I shrugged.

“Don’t tell me you were jealous,” the Good Captain said mildly.

“Not in a bad way,” I replied. “I mean, I was genuinely happy about your encounter with Marcy, and you inviting her to call you Grandpa. It’s just, well, it made me realize you’re sort of like a grandpa to me as well. It also sort of makes Marcy and me cousins.”

The Pastor smiled sentimentally, and his eyes appeared to well up. “I’m gonna tell you something I don’t tell special people in my life nearly enough. I say to my shame, I just tend to leave it for special people in my life to assume the sentiment is there.”

He paused, so I asked. “What is it, Sir?”

“I love you, Kiddo.”

“I love you too… Grandpa.”

In the couple hours it took to drive to Hannibal, Missouri, my new Grandpa told me more about his early life than he had in all of the two years I’ve known him combined.

“You should write an autobiography,” I told the Good Captain after GPS directed us to take a right onto the street Susan lived on.

“It’s not that interesting, Kiddo,” he replied with a sigh. “I’m just an ordinary man.”

“Who has live an extraordinary life,” I declared.

He shrugged, and then his face fell, yet looked surprised. “Susan must live in her childhood home.”

“Wow,” I said and pointed to a tandem seat tree swing. “Is that where you showed Sherry Corporal William’s letter?”

“Well, it’s the tree, and the limb the swing hung from. But it seems the swing itself has been updated.”

We sat for a minute as the Good Captain stared at the swing. “I’m to old for this,” he mumbled. “What am I doing here? I’m 85 years old. I should have been put out to pasture years ago.”

“Grandpa,” I giggled. “You’re 84. Quit aging yourself.”

“I’m much closer to my 85^th birthday than I am my 84^th,” he replied and then grinned. “Granddaughter.”

The door of the house opened, and a tall slender lady with shoulder length gray hair stepped onto the porch. She gazed at us warily, forced a smile, and waved.

“Well, at least it’s starting off better than it did fifty years ago,” Captain Kirk said.

“Is that Susan?” I inquired.

“I believe so.”

“I thought she was on her deathbed, or something,” I commented. “I wonder what her illness is? She looks pretty fit and healthy to me.”

“I don’t know, Kiddo,” Pastor replied, as he smiled and waved at her. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

We climbed out of my car, and Susan came to us and greeted, “Thanks for coming, Chaplain.”

“Thanks for inviting me,” Captain Kirk replied.

“I wish my son wouldn’t have had you come all this way,” she told him. “I didn’t mean to inconvenience you.”

“It’s no inconvenience. I had a chauffeur,” he joked.

“Is this your granddaughter?” Susan asked, smiling at me.

“Biologically, no,” Pastor said as he gazed fondly at me. “But spiritually, yes, she is very much my granddaughter.”

Captain Kirk introduced me to Susan, we exchanged pleasantries, and then small talk between the three of us ensued. I suppose it was the breaking of some ice, given the only other two conversations between Susan and the Good Captain were of an unpleasant nature. Then Susan invited us inside.

“I understand you have a health problem?” Pastor probed as we took a seat in her living room and accepted cups of herbal tea.

“Well,” she smiled sheepishly. “It was more of a health scare. I have a bit of a heart condition. But Lord willing, it seems to have stabilized with the medication they put me on. However, it was enough of a wakeup call that I began to reevaluate my life. Something that had been in the back of my mind for years came to the forefront. I needed to apologize to you for my behavior fifty years ago. But forgive me, I wasn’t even sure you were still alive.”

“No forgiveness needed,” the Good Pastor replied with a chuckle. “I am 85 after all.”

“You’re 84, Grandpa,” I corrected with a giggle. “Stop aging yourself.”

“Yes, yes, Dear One,” Pastor replied. “My birth certificate indicates that I’m still 84. But I prefer to count conception, thereby making me roughly 85 years and 8 months.”

“Point taken,” I chuckled. “Susan, he’s 85.”

Susan laughed heartily, laugh lines crinkling next to her close set eyes. It was hard to believe this pleasant woman was the young lady that treated the Good Pastor so harshly fifty years ago.

There was a lull in conversation as the merriment faded, then Susan clapped her hands and spoke. “So, Chaplain Samson, I have a twofold apology.”

“There’s no need to apologize to me, Susan,” Pastor humbly interjected. “It was a turbulent time with a polarizing war. It was a time of personal, heavy grief with the weight of Timmy’s death hanging on everyone’s heart.”

“Yes, I know,” Susan said as she looked at her lap and twisted her fingers nervously. “But that was no excuse for making a horrible time even more difficult for those around me, especially you, Chaplain.”

“Well, I accept your apology, and offer one up of my own,” Captain Kirk said. “I shouldn’t have shown your sister that letter from Timmy when I did.”

“You were just honoring his request, Chaplain,” Susan said. “I realize that now. It was absolutely awful for me to accuse you of killing Sherry with it. You didn’t even need to share that with me. Nobody would have known about the letter accept you and Sherry. And she was de… Well, you know. Anyway the fact that you told me on the phone that day, shows me what an honorable, standup guy you are.”

Now the Good Pastor looked at his lap, only he interlaced his fingers so tight his knuckles turned white.

After a long, somber moment of silence, Susan spoke. “Well, now I suppose it’s confession time,” she said with a non-humorous laugh.

Pastor looked up and raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, come on, Chaplain,” Susan said with a non-humorous chuckle. “Surely you’re dying to know how Saint Timothy ended up getting his fiancée’s sister pregnant?”

Now this was more in line with the Susan I was expecting.

As if on cue, Susan’s son walked into the house. Pastor stood, his eyes wide and startled. Then he spoke so softly, I believe it was to himself. “It’s like looking at a fifty year-old Timmy.”

(DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES and QUOTES)

As Jesus revealed to us the true character of the Father, so we are to reveal Christ to a world that does not know His tender, pitying love.

Satan is exultant when he can lead the children of God into unbelief and despondency. He delights to see us mistrusting God, doubting His willingness and power to save us. He loves to have us feel that the Lord will do us harm by His providences.

When we seem to doubt God’s love and distrust His promises, we dishonor Him and grieve His Holy Spirit.

Yet how many, by their actions, if not their word, are saying, “The Lord does not mean this for me. Perhaps He loves others, but He does not love me.” All this is harming your own soul.

How important that we speak only those things that will give spiritual strength and life.

There is many a brave soul sorely pressed by temptation, almost ready to give up in the conflict with self and sin. Do not discourage such a one in their hard struggle. Cheer them with brave, hopeful words that will urge them on their way. Thus the light of Christ may shine from you. “None lives unto themselves.” (Romans 14:7). By our unconscious influence others may be encouraged and strengthened, or they may be discouraged, and repelled from Christ and the truth.

Though Jesus’ life was self-denying and shadowed with pain and care, His spirit was not crushed. His countenance did not wear an expression of grief and repining, but ever one of peaceful serenity. His heart was a wellspring of life, and wherever He went Jesus carried rest and peace, joy, and gladness.

Christ came not to be ministered unto but to minister; and when His love reigns in the heart, we shall follow His example.

If we keep uppermost in our minds the unkind and unjust acts of others we will find it impossible to love them as Christ loved us. But if our thoughts dwell upon the wonderous love and pity of Christ for us, the same spirit will flow out to others.

Each day we have burdens, and perplexities. Often this causes us to complain and doubt. Do we well to be unbelieving? Why should we be ungrateful and distrustful? Jesus is our friend!

It is not the will of God that His people should be weighed down with care. But our Lord does not deceive us. He knows there are trials and dangers, and He deals with us plainly. He does not propose to take His people out of the world of sin and evil, but He points them to a never failing refuge. “In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33).

In His Sermon on the Mount, Christ taught His disciples precious lessons in regard to the necessity of trusting God.

The birds of the air are not beneath His notice. He does not drop the food into their bills, but He makes provision for their needs. Are you, as intelligent, spiritual worshipers of more value than the birds of the air?

The most gorgeous attire produced by the skill of art cannot bear comparison with the natural grace and radiant beauty of the flowers of God’s creation.

Happiness that is sought from selfish motives, outside of the path of duty, is ill-balanced, fitful, and transitory; it passes away, and the soul is filled with loneliness and sorrow; but there is joy and satisfaction in the service of God. The Christian is not left to walk in uncertain paths; they are not left to vain regrets and disappointments. If we do not have the pleasures of this life we may still be joyful in looking to the life beyond!

Every step in life may bring us closer to Jesus, may give us a deeper experience of His love, and may bring us one step nearer to the blessed home of peace.

“What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:26

Though a person may be poor, yet they possesses in themselves a wealth and dignity that the world could never bestow. The soul redeemed and cleansed from sin, with all its noble powers dedicated to the service of God, is of infinite worth. There is joy in heaven in the presence of God and the holy angels over one soul redeemed! (Luke 15:10)