Wesley United Methodist Church, Orange TX

Last night I witnessed a time of sadness and joy for the family and friends of Melvin Croaker; a very joyous occasion for one.  Melvin Croaker passed from this world to the next with a smile on his face, he was happy, he was free from pain and he was experiencing a home coming.  His family was sad because they will miss a genuinely good man, a good family man, a loving husband, father, brother, uncle and friend to many.  They too, in their sadness witnessed Melvin’s joy and knew that he was in a much better place than the hospital bed he was confined to.

“[Praise to God for a Living Hope] Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”- 1 Peter 1:3

Melvin has experienced the fullness of the new birth and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  His smile is proof for all of us who were there to the new birth and the welcoming of Melvin into the arms of Jesus Christ.  There were shouts with tears and shouts with joy because of the hope we all hold.

Michael, Melvin’s son, said that it was like Jesus hollered out to Melvin saying “come on Melvin we have an 8:oo tee time”.  That is a son who knows what his father loved doing and I can just imagine Jesus and Melvin on that #1 Tee Box high fiving each other after hitting some long straight shots right down the middle of a beautiful fairway.  Hey, one man gets streets of gold and another fairways of green.  Sounds like  heaven to me.

Have a blessed day full of hope and promise,  Randy

This entry was posted on October 3, 2010 at 7:42 am and is filed under Pastor's Ponderings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.