The Eternal Game

                                                                  The Eternal Game

Part I

Four men, one a brother, one a mayor, and two grandsons, hoisted the shiny black casket up on their shoulders, and began the short walk to the gravesite.  Tears welled up in their eyes, and rolled slowly down their cheeks, mixing with the rapidly falling snow that threatened to move the service inside.  Bill, whose brother and best friend's body lay in the casket, hoped that the weather would not continue to deteriorate.  John had loved the outdoors and it would be a shame if his service had to be moved inside. 

Rose looked out over the audience, smiling though her heart was in pain.  Her father would have been quite surprised, although no one else was, at the great number of people who honored him with their attendance.   One has to be truly loved, Rose thought, to get over 200 people out in freezing weather just to say goodbye.

"Good morning and thank you for coming.  I hope you can join me today in the remembrance of a wonderful life. This should not be a day for mourning, but rather the celebration of a graduation, from earth to heaven, for one who was an angel long before he actually entered the pearly gates. No longer is my father lying in that stuffy old house in pain. Instead he is now whole again, and walking hand in hand with mom in heaven. I must apologize for the weather, but we felt that since my father loved the outdoors so much that we had to have the service outside. He especially enjoyed a walk in the snow, so maybe this is the earth's way of saying farewell."  Rose saw several of the people smile in agreement.

"I know it is expected that good things be said at funerals, but looking around, I see the loved ones, the friends, and the family members, who already know the person my father was, so I don't need to make up stories, or pretend that he was something that he wasn't.  You all know how he spent his life helping others.  The orphanage that he started, which bears his name today, reminds us of the countless children whose lives were enriched by his intervention. This legacy of love speaks louder and truer than I ever could.  I see so many here today who were touched by his compassion and who are better today because he was alive. My heart swells with thanks that I was fortunate enough to share him and his limitless love with you.

As many of you also know, the orphanage has fallen on difficult times, and we pray that the Lord will find a way to keep it open now that its greatest champion has left us, but that is a battle for another day. Today, we speak of that champion of kindness, my father. Dad was strong to the end, and although cancer destroyed his body; his mind and soul were never compromised. I spoke to him only hours before he passed and he was at peace with God and creation.  We will never know for sure why he was outside in the freezing cold that last night, but I believe that he knew his time had come, and went outside to say goodbye to the old oak tree that he planted 50 years ago. "  

Rose fought back the tears. "I love that old oak tree as well, and as you all know, we have a picnic beneath it each year on my birthday.  Now, not only does the tree represent my birth, but also my father's passing into the arms of our Lord".

Rose saw the young man Jacob sitting in a wheelchair near the back of the crowd.  Jacob, one of the teachers at the school for the disabled, had been the first child accepted into the orphanage that her father had founded so many years before. "Jacob, would you like to say something?"

Jacob, who had before the service asked permission to speak, nodded.  His eyes showed a quiet determination, and it was easy to see that, while his body was prisoner to the chair, that his spirits were undaunted.

"Yes ma'am."

Jacob wheeled his chair to the front of the assembly.  "Many of you don't know me, but I want you to know that I will miss Mr. John as much as anyone here today.  My parents could not handle the fact that I was crippled and sick when I was a child.  Mr. John took me under his wings from the first moment we met at the school for the disabled so many years ago. I arrived as a broken spirited, unloved homeless child, but graduated a member of his family. I want you to know that I'm the reason that he pioneered the orphanage that today sits next to the school.  I remember him telling me that he could not stand the thought of one child growing up without a family, without love. It was his money that got it started, and his tenacity that saw it through the many tough times that it has endured as a non-profit, unsubsidized outreach.    Because of Mr. John, I now have not only a family, but also a career as a teacher.  Heaven today is a better place with his presence, yet I wish that God had seen fit to let us keep him just a little longer.  There was so much that he accomplished, but so much that remains to be done.  Children are still being born today without parents to love or care for them, and they need us to step up and take over the work that he began."