Galveston, Texas is the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement and has a bevy of homes from 1890 and 1905. Galveston is a small-town version of New Orleans. Well worth the exploration.
Saturday morning, we prepared to leave the house my brother rented for our reunion. And I'd spent Friday evening talking to my son and Cal about Elliott passing on. We were sorrowful. And didn't feel any happier Saturday thinking about Elliott's wife, Harby, and their children.
My brother went on ahead of me to load up his truck. And the man next door with the fruit trees: figs, apples and peaches, stood on the porch and visited with my brother. They had been in conversation about the best time for ducks and shallow fishing and deep water fishing. As I got to my brother's vehicle, the man said he had spent the last year in MD Anderson for an extensive, rare cancer. I looked at him again. He described a very extensive cancer briskly. And he said after the operation, the cancer was gone. I watched his cheerfulness as he told of the long year. And he said, I thought I was a goner for over a year and I realized something important. My brother and I were both listening carefully and nodding, but not interrupting our neighbor.
Our neighbor said, "I realized as I faced death with all these cancer experts, that if I lived or died, this was because God said so. If I died, God would have called me to His Heaven. And I have lived only because God has called me to this earthly life. All of the Bible is True. And we live because God gives His Word."
My brother said yes, and I raised my hand up and nodded. Our briefly neighbor was witnessing to Elliott being in God's Plan. Jesus tells us God calls Himself Help, Helper and Comforter. Our Neighbor continued in Good Cheer, "God Bless you, sir, in your travels and hunting and fishing." My brother has been extremely distressed, his hometown of El Paso lost all hunting and fishing dried up when the rivers were used for agriculture. "God Bless you, ma'am, in your travel and this day." Little did this man know, how much he had blessed me extensively. Beautifully. Wondrously. Ways we remember all of our lives.
Jesus the Lord, bless our Neighbor. Like the Good Samaritan, he is paving the Way. May he have long life and many joyous days giving this loving message. And bless my brother for being so good to our mother and me.
When we give our experiences, we give love.
We don't usually hear people debunk or complain about being blessed as we were. God has seen our neighbor through pain, dire worry, extreme illness. And this man found, in this experience, a way to see the good and proclaim God of the living. God of Love. Being in faith, to find Joy and Opportunity for God. With God being God.
God, the Holy Spirit, prays for us.
Romans 8:26-27
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness.
For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
27 And He who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit because
the Spirit intercedes for the saints according
to the will of God.
Elliott Hodges' music
Abba, Father,
In Jesus Christ, we will never give up.
Jesus the God of ALL.
Jesus the God of Elliott, we pray Life and healing
Elliott's Joy and Love in Harby and their children.
Jesus, God of Encouragement.
Jesus, Hope and Future.
Jesus the Lord
saves the world
Amen.
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