Reflections

 

Back in June 2011 I had prayer that morning for the retirees of Linden City Schools.  They told me to adlib for the “Reflections” part I had on the program.  That was easy, since most of the stuff I did, as Director of Missions seems to be adlib.  I was supposed to be on vacation, but WMVB (Moody Radio) needed my voice, Pam, BBA secretary, needed an article, and the school needed my prayer.  I guess the school realized I needed to practice my public prayers, Pam needed to fill space on the back of The Alabama Baptist, and John Rogers of Moody Radio needed me to fill a time slot with information from Bethel Baptist Association.  That being said, my vacation plans are flexible, so I adlibbed, and changed plans for a few hours. 

Something caught my attention at the retirement celebration.  One teacher served 39 years.  That is significant.  She began teaching a year after I graduated.  Can you believe that fifty-two years ago I graduated Jemison High School?  It has gone so fast.

I remember at our fifteenth-year reunion that our biology teacher was celebrating her thirtieth reunion year.  We kidded her about being old when she taught and how did she feel about going to her reunion of THIRTY years.

I think some of my classmates may have matured a tad bit more that they would like to admit.  I know that Miss Clairol is a personal friend of most of the girls, oh, I’m sorry, I mean senior adult women, in my senior class, and Father Time has caught most of us guys who have developed the dreaded furniture disease.  That is our chest has dropped into our drawers.

Most of our reunions have been on a riverboat ride departing from Montgomery.  The ride is forty-five minutes down river and forty-five minutes to return.  It begins at twilight and concludes as night settles over town.  The nighttime skyline of Montgomery is mesmerizing.  The lights are absolutely breathtaking.  I love the nighttime, especially in the winter when it is drizzling rain.  It is a time of reflection for me.

Unconsciously, I think it has something to do with my arrival to earth.  No, I’m not an extraterrestrial being even thought I may appear to be one.  I was born at night during a freezing rain.  I know that I cried that night because it was so beautiful.  I think that’s way I cried.

Another thing is that I dated many nights underneath beautiful star filled skies.  I got my first kiss at night on a front porch.  I worked more night shifts than day shifts at the cement plant.  I work better at night than in the daytime.  If fact I worked into the night trying to finish this article for Pam.

Unfortunately, most people associate night with the negative or the bad.  Some folks have trouble seeing at night. Driving at night is a big thing among senior adults.  I remember overhearing one of our senior adult ladies at our Senior Adult Revival asking if a certain eligible senior adult man had his driving license and if he could drive at night.

Evil people work their evilness behind the cloak of darkness.  Thieves do their thieving at night.  Good, that is light, is often contrasted with Bad, which is darkness.  Satan is the prince of darkness.  That is the way life is, someone or somebody can ruin a good night.

Take old Judas for instance.  Jesus and the gang were having a swell nighttime party and Judas had to do his dastardly deed and betray Jesus.  The fourth gospel, The Apostle John, uses light and darkness figuratively.  John says that when Judas left the upper room “it was night.”  C. Welton Gaddy in his book Geography of the Soul says, “That is not merely an observation about the time of day; it was a comment on the condition of Judas’ soul.”

He (Judas) then having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night (John 13:30 KJV).

The disciples knew their potential for betrayal because the Last Supper was a time of refection.