God paints the landscape in beautiful colors as the leaves
turn color, turn loose, and gently fall as breezes coming from brilliant mounds
of pure white snow and ice begin returning to
On cold, clear, beautiful mornings, I think of an old friend
Aritris, pronounced Artareese. As a kid,
Aritris drove a road machine for
When Aritris scraped the dirt road, we knew it was going to
rain and that fresh dirt heaped into the road made a muddy mess. You could bank on it raining if the county
scraped the road and you could hear the train whistle blowing through the holler, which is
Aritris said he found all sorts of goodies on the
roads. He found a pack of metric tools
for a Honda motorcycle and sold them to me.
Daddy traded a junk tractor for a junk Honda 50 that did not have a tool
set. Aritris sold them to me for five
dollars. I remember it took me a while
to pay those five dollars.
Aritris attended my home church. He never attended Sunday School, attending
only the preaching service. He always
parked a long way from the church with his car headed out. All of us kids joked about his fast
get-a-way. We also heard rumors about a
lady friend or two, but it was just gossip as far as I remember.
Aritris’ wife, Myrtle, was one of the greatest influences in
my life. Much of my Theology is due to
her teaching. She was very humble and
always gave an emotional testimony when given an opportunity. I can hear her shaky and crying voice telling
how great Jesus was to her. She always
prayed for Aritris.
One crystal, clear, blue-sky morning when the air was brisk
with the Arctic breeze, Aritris and his son-in-law were cutting firewood. They took a break to eat a hearty breakfast
in anticipation of a hard day’s work. As
they ate, the son-in-law, a fine Christian man, commented on the day, “What a
beautiful day to meet the Lord.”
Aritris and he returned to work and in just moments, the
son-in-law died when his tractor overturned while pulling a log.
Aritris could never get his son-in-law comment out of his
mind. In a matter of days, Aritris was
gloriously saved. He started attending
Sunday School and parking closer to the church.
He began going with the brotherhood to a jailhouse ministry. I remember riding the church bus with him
back from one of our jailhouse meetings.
He and another friend who accepted the Lord about the same time were
talking about the blessed life of Christianity.
I will never forget what they said.
They asked one another, “Why did we wait so long?” A short time later, both men learned that
cancer would interrupt their lives. Both
men died shortly after that conversation on the bus.
I will never forget what Ms. Myrtle said at a cottage prayer
meeting at Aritris and her home not long after Aritris accepted Christ. Gathered in a circle we talked about the
importance of prayer for genuine revival.
Ms. Myrtle said to pray in faith.
He said she had been praying for Aritris for forty-one years. That is
right 41 years.
Aritris has been with the Lord for about forty-one years. Ms. Myrtle continued to pray and give heart-wrenching testimony until her death several years ago. Fall mornings remind me of her faithful
prayers and touching testimony.
The effectual fervent
prayer of a righteous man availeth much (James
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