Year 6-Day 18: Today, I am grateful for precious pictures. This photo was taken at the holidays just a few month before my Dad died. It has been at my desk at work since April of 2013. It have been a "prayer trigger" reminding me to pray for my Uncle Mel, Dad's only brother.
Sunday evening... they had a heavenly reunion. So many he loved and missed were already there. His heart longed for heaven, but leaving loved ones behind here made that last step a big one.
When I see this image, I see relationship. They were quite a pair. I am reminded of the countless cups of coffee, the endless debates, meals at the kitchen table, the "Dickie" brand work clothes, the brown work boots with the scent of fine black dirt. What a pair!
I remember the children in the community this pair and Grandpa Lindgren would taxi to the little Clifton church they grew up in so they could hear the Good News of Christ. They would divide and conquer to get everyone there and home again. They could be quite a team when they had a common goal... and they could drive each other nuts.
I love that if Uncle Mel knew we were in town he would always stop by. I left home after college and married Randy... more than 30 years ago. As long as he was able to drive, he was present in our world. Even after Dad died. I remember one Prime Rib meal he really enjoyed around my brother Matt and Jennifer's table where we have gathered in recent years. He was tickled to be there but didn't want to impose. Oh Uncle Mel... you were never, ever unwelcome at the table.
This picture reminds me that they had voices you could not tell apart on the phone. I recall a mission trip to Haiti that cost him a tough battle with shingles, and the days he lay in Mom and Dad's bed trying to press through the pain. It was an example of "presenting his body (and his heart) as a living sacrifice". April and I learned some comfort nursing with Mama Ina Mae's direction.
I remember the times their stubborness led to division, but in time, they always returned to starting and ending their days together... even into their 70's. Dad would find Uncle Mel in the morning and Uncle Mel would stop by Mom & Dad's in the late afternoon.
No one teaches love better than a sibling. For those blessed with a full life, siblings are our first "until death do us part" relationship and shared living quarters. No one teaches forgiveness better than a sibling. These two were sons of thunder, for sure.
Death brings grief to those left behind. My heart aches for my cousins, as the loss of a father is unique loss. The loss of a grandfather is, too. He taught them to work hard, to seek the scriptures for wisdom, to be present, to press on, to laugh, to tell stories and to smile... even when the days were hard. How I love his big grin in this picture.
Soon, we will gather to honor and remember the life and the legacy. We will offer remembrances and swap stories. I wonder if heaven has an ugly formica table (vintage 1960's) for them to sit around with harvest gold chairs that spin? If it does, Grandpa Harry, Uncle Mel and Dad are around it and April is serving up the coffee from an old silver percolator pot.
Uncle Mel will be missed, but he finished his race and has found his reward.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. -Hebrews 12:1-3
Press on... and treasure that which is precious.
Today, I am grateful for precious pictures
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