FLEEING THE TEMPTER

 In 2009, I went to the beach twice.  For most of you, they may not seem that much.  For me, I do not care too much for the beach.  I have been to the Atlantic Ocean beach at St. Augustine, Florida.  I have been to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico in Galveston, Texas.  I waded in the waters of the Pacific Ocean at Newport Beach in Southern California.

Last month I went Destin, Florida with a couple that hosted me for an On Mission Celebration in Covington Association.  We walked on the beach, and I visited two beach weddings.  I was getting ideas knowing I would do one within two weeks.  When I did the wedding at Gulf Shores, I went in the Gulf ankle deep to say I have been in the Gulf.

I am not a beach person, but I have been to Gulf Shores many times visiting friends that visited Gulf Shores each year the week after Christmas.  On one of those visits, I wrote a poem and I thought I would share it with everyone since June is Father’s Day month.

 

FLEEING THE TEMPTER

 

A seagull chases a killdee* up and down, round and round.

As long as the killdee flees, the seagull cannot catch it.

So, in its illusiveness they race just inches above the crashing and roaring waves.

 

Children are playing in the sand, some tiptoe to the edge of the sea’s invitation to dive into its threshold.  In innocence, they laugh as they are chased by incoming waves away from the sea not realizing that they were under the watch of guardians.

 

Seagulls stand guard and await the seas invitation to dine upon its continual supply of refuse, trash, and skeletons of creatures fallen in the sea.  They no longer resist the seas invitation.  The temptation is too great for them and they feast.  People walk by them unnoticed as the seagulls focus on the sea’s roar calling them to come and dine.

 

Some people walk along the shore at the waters edge slowly being seduced by the hypnotic voice of the deep, but quickly escaping the tempter’s snare they flee the cold chill of the rushing waves and continue walking briskly along the shore with no destination in mind.

 

They walk leaving their footprints upon the sands of time only to have them erased by the seas troubled waves.  Slowly they fade way leaving no evidence of the lives that have resisted the seas continual seduction.

 

The older generation sits and reflects upon the repeated temptation of the sea as it goes back and forth.  The motion reminds them of life’s restlessness that was before them and will continue long after they are gone.  They reminisce of childhood as children build sand castles in the shifting sand. 

 

They think of romantic yesterday as they watch two lovers embrace as the waves come crashing to shore.  They think of past passions as the sun is seduced and slowly enters into the sea.  In the seduction, the sun has lost its brilliant glow and now blushed as it kisses the sea.

 

Only moments before the sun’s flame had made the sky crystal clear, pure, and virgin blue sparkling like a beautiful diamond in the cold winter air.  The sun’s warmth penetrated the cold and warmed the air as they embraced.  The sand glistened as a bride dressed in white meeting her groom.

 

Suddenly, the seagull stops his pursuit and the killdee escapes while the seagull dives into the sea for its prey.

 

Bobby E. Hopper, December 29, 1999

Visiting friends in Gulf Shores, Alabama

 

* A killdee is a small bird with long legs that acts injured when it has young.

 

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7 KJV).

Miss Harvey

It is funny how things trigger your memory.  I got my yearbook and I saw a picture of one of our deceased teachers, Miriam Harvey.  Miss Harvey was a math teacher at Jemison High School.  She was an old maid.  Her eyes were a little weird and her grey hair had a blue tint to it.  She was small and frail looking.  I had her for seventh grade study hall, tenth grade algebra II, eleventh grade geometry, and twelfth grade advanced math.  I knew her before I had her as a teacher.  My aunt, a beautician, was the one that gave her that blue tint.

Miss Harvey called me her best student ever.  She made math so simple with her teaching methods.  First, she asked if there were any problems we could not work.  Second, those students that could not work a problem would go to one chalk board to show what he/she knew.  Third, another student who worked the problem, and for an extra “A”, would go to another chalk board and work it.  Finally, the student that worked the problem would explain to the one who could not how to work the problem. 

Miss Harvey constantly challenged me to go to college.  One particular time she asked if I knew a certain student.  I did.  She reminded me that he was at Auburn University and was the top calculus student there.  She said that I was smarter than he.  I figured (remember I love math) she was just trying to get me to go to college.  We frustrated one another over the college thing. 

Finally, one day I asked her why people went to college anyway.  My parents were very anti-educational. Their perception of college educated people was not very high.  They thought of them as being better than them and as smart-alecky.

Miss Harvey said that people go to college to get an education, to get a good job, and make more money.  I responded that some go to be a smart aleck.  That did not resonate very well with Miss Harvey.  She said I called her a smart-aleck and I got on her bad side.

One day she caught me as I started home.  I never carried books home, having finished my homework at school.  (I took books home to study for tests sometimes.)  She marched me back to my locker to get books to take home.

Another time, the biology teacher and the principle got me and some other “A” students to play a prank on Miss Harvey.  There was a mump epidemic in school and Miss Harvey had never had them.  They gave us bubble gum (a no-no in class) and had us pretend to have the mumps by placing gum in our cheeks.  When we all went back for the laugh the whole episode turned into a fiasco.  When we told her the biology teacher and the principle had us pull the prank, she told us they would never do a cruel act such as that.  When we went to principle, he told us we went too far with it.

That prank got me kicked out of class and ten demerits.  Those demerits, along with some other demerits from a series of unfortunate events, got me kicked out of the beta club.  I had all “A’s” except for an “F” in conduct. 

Miss Harvey was sponsor of the beta club and I was president of the club my senior year.  I felt her wrath.  She told me that no beta club member would have an “F”.  I maintained the required grades for membership, but she got her way.  I spent the remainder of the school year trying to be reinstated in the beta club.  The club overruled Miss Harvey and I got back in the club.

Miss Harvey retired at the end of the school year in 1971.  Her life was Jemison High School and her students.  When I returned to college in 1983, I went to the nursing home to see Miss Harvey.  She smiled when I told her that I was going to college.  She saw something in this “Knot head” I did not see.  When I read of Anna seeing Jesus I think of Miss Harvey.  She was a wonderful Christian teacher.

And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity; And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.  And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem (Luke 2:36-38 KJV).

Oh, by the way.  Miss Harvey had someone read the Bible and have devotion every morning in her home room class.

Heirloom Rock'n Horse

Fourteen years ago, the Hopper family passed another milestone in life’s journey.  Our first grandson, Jon Grady Chapman celebrated his first birthday on June 13.  He actually turned one on the seventeenth, but the thirteenth was a Saturday where family could attend.

It was rather big party.  Jon Grady’s uncle Andy, the interior designer, brought a cake covered with a miniature circus tent.  I really thought with both extended families there that he should have brought a real circus tent, but we won’t go there.

Jon Grady’s grandparents thought it would be nice to give Jon Grady an heirloom rocking horse.  We got the idea after attending Friendship Baptist Church’s Sunday school get-together at Harold Wayne and Charlotte Leonard’s cabin in Vineland, Alabama.  When we saw it and asked what the horse cost, I got the idea that I could make it out of better wood and build it cheaper than the Gatlinburg price. 

Remember, it was an heirloom horse.  I love woodworking, but at the time I did not have the place for my tools or the time to do much woodworking nowadays.

We asked Liz Thompson if she would take pictures of the horse and e-mail them to me.  Liz did and I thought I could do it, but I realized that plans would be much better.  Pam, our wonderful Associational secretary, suggested that I look online for some plans.  I did and I ordered them from California.  I got them in two days, which amazed me seeing as how some of our mail-outs to local people take more time than that.

I had the plans for several weeks before getting enough time to undertake the project.  I designated one week of vacation to go back up home to Sugar Ridge and build an heirloom rocking horse.  My brother sells hardwood and I got him to get me some cherry wood.  He handpicked me some beautiful cherry and sized it according to the dimensions of the plan.  He delivered it and I immediately started to lay out the pieces from the patterns.  I admit that I read the instructions several times before starting.  I know that is not manly, but it is better to read instructions on some things before assembling them.

I have a small band saw, but it is designed for thin small horses and not heirloom rocking horses.  Cherry is hardwood, but it is a good wood to use.  I decided to go to a Lowe’s and get a new jigsaw.  My old one has disappeared.  I think an interior designer has it.  While at Lowe’s I decided that I need a belt sander achieve a more quality finish.  I am glad I got the cherry wood cheap, tool costs were rising, but nothing compared to today’s prices.  I thought a trip to Gatlinburg for a purchase might be cheaper.

With new tools, I cut out the horse and sanded the pieces to perfection.  I started assembling some pieces and I realized I needed a biscuit cutter, biscuits, and wood glue.  No, I was not cooking, but in cabinet building, biscuits, or oval shaped dowels, help to strengthen joints when gluing wood together.  I made another trip to Lowe’s.  Did you know that Lowe’s stays open to 10:00 PM?  At midnight, I glued the horse’s head to the body with biscuits and glue.  It made a pretty joint and I had three new and handy tools to do woodworking one of these days.

I returned to Linden where Uncle Aaron, and Poppy, that’s me, started the process of creating an heirloom.  The wood was too pink.  I was convinced would turn dark but I stained cherry wood with cherry stain and sealed it with three coats of floor grade polyurethane.  It did look great.  With the heirloom plans, I ordered a blond mane and tail, saddle, bridle, and eyes, which made it more beautiful.

When Jon Grady sat on the horse, he made a clicking sound, which brought smiles to everyone.  I did create a beautiful piece of artisanship and problems.  Every kid at the party wanted a horse and asked their dads if they could build one for them.  It also means that when other Jon Gradys come into the Hopper family that more heirloom horses will have to be created. 

Gatlinburg sure looks nice in the fall of the year.

See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts-- to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship (Exodus 31:1-4 NIV).