"Papa"

This past week on Tuesday at noon I received a phone call that forever changed my life. It was from my Cousin that needed to just share as his Dad had passed away just after the sun arose that morning. There had been much darkness in their lives over the years due to some poor choices that stemmed from trying to simply cope from a world that you and I may not ever understand. His Dad had just turned 63 the end of October, so you can compute that back wards and what do you see? You see a Vietnam Veteran that served his country and came home forever changed. My Uncle served 4 years in the Army arriving home with the memories of all he saw as a very young man, some would even say a boy not even a man. He came home from those 4 years of survival to a wife that he loved and married while on leave, he came home to a young infant son. He came home.....many of his friends did not.

I've been around my Mom's brother a good part of my life and very rarely did I ever hear him talk about it. He made many poor choices as I mentioned earlier, one of them was turning to alcohol to try and numb or acquiesce the pain deep in his heart and his memory. This left him single several years later, this left him with an estranged relationship with his 3 delightful children and with his sibling, my Mom. He received a healing in the latter part of his years as the relationships with each of his children were nurtured once again. I'll have to tell you, I loved this man. He made me laugh and he made me feel loved. He reached out to me countless times when my own Mom refused to love me. There was love in this man that had seen more than he should ever have seen.

How can I be so sure of the love deep in my Uncle? Because on Friday morning I saw the tender heart of a 6 year old little girl that broke my heart as she, herself, was loving "Papa". She had received his love deeply and I'm positive she had poured back into his dry thirsty soul. She passed by ever so gently to walk up and rub her fingertips gently on the corner of Papa's casket underneath the America flag. I walked up to her and told her she was loved and that she and I were going to be friends. That I loved her Papa and that he was a good man. I had known her Papa for a long time.

While my Uncle didn't make the best choices often in his own "current", I saw first hand that he had made perhaps better choices later in life. I saw my three adult cousins with their own hearts breaking this day, I saw my own heart loving them through their pain. I saw GOD using my past pain to help them in their current pain. It's not been that long ago that I was in their shoes. Just 6 short years ago that I was saying goodbye to my Mom at the age of 58.

After lunch as we were gathering to leave for our drive back home 1/2 way across the state, up walked a precious little 6 year old girl reaching out her hand to rub a button on my jacket that was high on my chest. She just kept rubbing it and rubbing it and this is what she spoke:

Friend, I don't want you to leave

That touches my soft heart way deep, for my husband says I am a "kid magnet". Rightly so, oh yes I am. But it causes me to reflect towards my Lord and Savior as well. Friend, I don't want You to leave. He promises me that He won't. Deuteronomy 31:6 NIV "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you."

I spoke with each of Papa's grandchildren and there is another neat little story that must be told.......and it will be, soon.

Lovingly,
Yolanda Rogers
Higher Grounds