In Remembrance

This post is scheduled for 11:00 am on Saturday, April 19, 2014. That is the time of the scheduled funeral for my friend, and good Christian man, Chuck. I've known him some 5-6 years. He was a member of the best Sunday School class I've ever been blessed to attend. Chuck's youngest and my oldest are the same age (9), and have been in the same Church class since age 3, and also the same grade in the same school since Kindergarten.

Lefty says it well when he says he was glad to have known Chuck. All of us that are so blessed as to be able to count ourselves as his friends are better for having known him.

Chuck, an honorably discharged Captain in the Air Force, leaves behind quite possibly the sweetest family I have ever known: a wife and four children ranging in age from nine to twenty.

My only regret is that I promised Chuck that we would go fishing, and that never happened as the brain cancer kept getting in the way. But that's OK - I'll be sure to take his son one day. And when we get to Heaven, I know there will be a fishing spot (if you aren't sure, you need to research what St. Peter's profession was before he met Jesus Christ).

Chuck was a talented musician and actor. Amazingly, he had a great mind for the sciences as well: his post-military job was in microbiology. The brain tumor tried to take some of that away, but Chuck pressed on.

When I was at the visitation yesterday, an entire busload of people from out of state came in right at 3 pm when the visitation was set to start. It is no surprise to me that this wonderful man and his precious family have touched so many in a positive way.

Chuck never failed to show love, and each time I think of him, I am reminded of 1 John 4: 7-8 -

Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.