January 31, 2013

And For Dessert

Losing his battle against cancer, Bob’s life was slipping away. His family knew he was heaven bound and they didn’t want him to linger. Though they had emotionally released him to the God, his wife and daughter, Earline and Sharla did have one request of the Lord. They had heard stories of angels being present to usher saints home when they die…and they wanted to see the angels. Monday night as the family was finishing supper the daughter-in-law came into the dining room with the news that Bob had passed. Although Earline and Sharla would like to have been by Bob’s side when he passed, they had to laugh at the Lord’s timing and sense of humor. At the exact moment of Bob’s death, they were eating angel food cake.

3 comments:

Steve Corey said...

Gail;

-----One of my favorite expressions is, “History loves a coincidence.” The Denver Broncos met the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl 32 after NFC teams had won thirteen straight. And Green Bay had won the thirteenth. Bad omen. Both AFC teams book ending this NFC winning streak were from the AFC West Division, Oakland beat Washington in 1984, and Denver now faced Green Bay. The coincidences stacked too high. I was certain Denver would win in spite of all the Green Bay hype. Then, each of Green Bay’s first three plays of that Super Bowl went for thirteen yards. I was immediately miffed that I had not visited Las Vegas before game day.
-----The Spirit of 76 was not the airplane of Lindbergh’s first choice. A competitor beat him to the one he wanted and named it the Columbia. His teeny-bopper daughter and her friend begged him into giving them a ride the night before the trans-Atlantic flights took off. On the third bounce at take off, Columbia’s left landing gear broke. They were now in the air and doomed to crash upon landing, which they did. Nobody was hurt, fortunately. 76 years after this event, and maybe not from as good a spirit, a piece of insulation peeled off the space shuttle Columbia’s fuel tank on take off and damaged a couple heat-shield tiles on its left landing gear cover. The Columbia, now in flight with guests aboard, faced destruction upon re-entry.
-----And we’ve all heard the giant list of coincidences between the Lincoln and Kennedy assassinations. Despite many of them being bogus, the true ones, which probably sparked the list, are cool. Both of their last names have seven letters. Lincoln was elected in 1860, Kennedy in 1960. Both lost a child while in office. Both were shot in the head on a Friday. The first and last names of both assassins total fifteen letters. Booth ran from a theatre and was captured in a warehouse. Oswald ran from a warehouse and was captured in a theatre. Neither lived to be tried (maybe not so amazing.) Both were Southerners. Both vice Presidents stepping into the Oval Office were Southerners named Johnson, Andrew born 1808, and Lyndon born 1908. OK.
-----It is certain that the human mind is bent upon noting patterns within information. Many point to this as the fact that coincidences have no meaning. But I like to point out that the controlling circumstance is the presence of the patterns, not the notation of them. What do the patterns, these coincidences, mean? Let’s visit one more.
-----Tim Tebow won 7 of his 2011 regular season starts. A very good and familiar number. Amongst those exciting wins he lost 4, the number of creation and the earth, to which he would return. Then he threw for 316 yards in his first play-off win. Everybody not-Christian loathed that coincidence. But the one maybe more meaningful and completely missed was that his 316 yards came on 10 passes, the number of completion. Seeing this stat on the TV screen, I immediately turned to my daughter and prclaimed, “This is their last win! Next week, they loose.” I was kidding, of course. But I wasn’t wrong. And how right that number ten was! 2011 was his last season in Denver. And the way he was treated by New York might indicate his NFL career could soon be completed for a Philippines career. I hope not. But I’m keeping an eye on that 10.
-----I believe God amuses us with coincidences in the least, knocks hard upon our doors with them at most, and whispers sweet nothings into our ears with them, moreover. I suppose if Earline and Sharla had actually seen angels taking Bob up, they would be writing home about it. But that they were eating angel food cake while he passed warms my heart with the thought of God’s loving attention to even life’s most trivial details. His story loves a coincidence.

Love you all,
Steve Corey

Steve Corey said...

PS

To Denver’s meeting Green Bay, only Oakland and Denver, the two teams book-ending the NFC streak, had entered the Super Bowl as wild cards, and both from the AFC West, too. Maybe too trivial to point out, but still worthy of a chuckle, wild card Oakland beat Philadelphia three years before it beat Washington thirteen years before Green Bay opened its Super Bowl loss with its first three plays going for thirteen yards each. OK! Enough! Enough, already!

Steve Corey said...

PS, again

I usually start my car and go back in the house while it warms up. As I left the house this morning, I decided not to go back inside and wait, even though it was only twenty degrees. After scraping frost and climbing into the driver’s seat, a conversation on Red-Eye radio caught my ear. I was being served the great pleasure of listening to Ted Nugent bust up Piers Morgan’s anti-gun idiocy with iron facts and logic like they were little clay pots. This I wouldn’t have missed for anything! But I would have had I followed habit this morning. Coincidences give my heart joy, and my mind gives God the thanks.