You can tell when spring
is near when you hear birds chirping, smell the aroma of trees and vines
budding, see the countless colored daffodils, and taste food from the
grill. Spring is my favorite time of the
year. Everything is coming to life. It makes Easter special. It reminds us that the dead of winter and its
long dark hours are gone.
I am one of the few that enjoys winter. When serving the Bethel Baptist Associational Disaster Relief Chain Saw team, I enjoyed snow in Missouri after an ice storm. Well, I enjoyed the cold and the snow. It reminded me of living in
Spring reminds me of
going home, the eternal one. It is the
promise of eternal life found in the resurrection of Jesus. Daddy died on Friday after Easter April 29, 1984 . I remember the morning I left the
hospital. The birds were singing, the
morning sun glistened, and you could smell the aroma of spring. I thought about what a beautiful day for
daddy to go home with Jesus.
Doctors diagnosed momma
with stage four-melanoma cancer in the fall of 1986 and she died in the winter
in January. Her last days were
difficult. The demon cancer consumed her
beautiful body. The funeral director
said her body was as a piece of wood that looked solid until you picked it up, and
then realized that, it was rotten and it crumbled in your hands.
It snowed days
before her death. With her arm eaten
into from cancer, she watched me build a snowman from her hospital window. I knocked on her window and made a face. Hours later, the Clanton Hospital
transferred her to the University of Alabama Birmingham Hospital. I rode with her in the emergency
vehicle. I remember it snowing as we
unloaded in downtown Birmingham .
They placed her in
the terminal ward. If there was a
picture of hell it was the night I spent with her. Seven people, including a young boy, young
mother, and elderly man died that night.
Patients throughout the whole ward cried out in agony and pain.
I had never been
around such torment before. I heard the
cries of a young boy as he cried for his mother to hold him and stop the pain. The lady in the room with momma would speak in
a little girl's voice. She said, “Daddy,
please hold me.” She repeated it over
and over. Momma would say, “Oh God, help
me.” She repeated this over and
over. I lay there with a feeling of
hopelessness. My pain seemed
insignificant compared to those who died that night.
I have thought about
that night many times. I went home, my
back in severe pain from the stress, and stared at the ceiling. I could not sleep, eat, work, study, read,
etc. I was useless and wanting to
die. This is how I pictured hell. I was glad that this was the only torment
that momma would endure. When she died,
my sister, my brothers, and I thanked God that she entered heaven where the
flowers bloom forever and she would receive a new beautiful body.
And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in
torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom (Luke 16:23 ).
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and
they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand (John 10:27 -28)
Resurrection morning
Jesus solidified His promise, I am the
resurrection, and the life.
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