BEEN TO A FUNERAL LATELY?

I don't know that I remember the first funeral I ever attended. I do vivadly remember the death of my Uncle I.B. who was killed in a tragic accident, and I served as a pall bearer as a boy at my Grandfather's funeral. There was always a sense of finality at those early services.

As I matured in Christ, I understood that physical death is part of God's plan. Old bodies wear out because of sin; we don't want to hang around in them too long.

Our attitudes about death and about funerals are very tied to our attitude about God. Is He concerned? Does He have a plan for us? Why are we put in these positions? Everyone of us faces the same questions of life. It's how we anwer them that count.

My Mother and Dad lost a boy at birth in the hills of northern Arkansas during the depression. There was very little medical help in those days. The doctor, who was drunk that night, did not arrive on time, and the breach baby was still born. I can only imagine the pain and sorrow and anger of my parents during those very dark hours.

My Dad was a day laborer, and he often worked in 1934 for less than a dollar a day. They were struggling just to eat. So my Dad, with his own hands, carved a little stone that sits on the grave for Darrell Don Cotter in Leslie, Arkansas. I often visualize that small group of people gathered around the little gravesite, crying, grieving, and looking to God for support.

I know that they looked to God, because that is the way they raised me. Even though I didn't come along for another five years, they were preparing their hearts and lives to greet me.

RL is going to a funeral today; we just read in the paper of a 102 year old friend who died. I have but a few years to go before my own death.

I want my children and grandchildren and friends to be ready for death. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except by me."

OLD TIMER'S DISEASE

My son-in-law has peaked my interest in family history, and I've been doing a lot of work on ancestry.com. It is a lot of fun to discover a new document or fact about one of the family ancestors. Our family is just like yours. There are some tht are fun to discover; there are others we'd like to keep secret.

I'm also affected by this "old timer's disease" of looking to the past because of my mother. I realize that I write about her often, but that is only natural, since I see her and deal with her needs every day. At 102, she still continues to amaze me with her keen insights and reflections on life.

The new Holland Lake Park softball fields are being built just across the street from her retirement home, and we have made two excursions out to the new area to survey the progress. Our trip out yesterday on one of these "inspection" trips brought us into contact with an electrical crew putting up some very beautiful and ornate light poles. We stopped and talked with the crew; they were already busy with a difficult task. But . . they stopped and took the time to talk with us. Our told them of Birdie's age, and they were amazed at her ability to communicate and discuss the new lights. One of the young men told us that he had just called his 90 year old great grand father that day, and so he was very alert to Mother's needs.

She said to me, "I've never seen anything like that. That must be the 'only one' like it in the world. They certainly don't have anything like that in Big Spring or anywhere else. I assured her that there were others like it, but I agreed that it was a very beautiful softball field. I was certainly taken back by the layout and beauty and funtion of the spot. It was something!

I have old timer's disease. I usually want to look back to the past, to remember the old softball fields of the past. But . . things . . they are a changing.

As I get older, I'm praying for new timer's disease. I want to support my community as it looks to a future. I want to support my church as it reaches out in new ways. I think that is what Christ had in mind when he said, "Look at the fields that are white unto harvest." They are new.