Doers of the Word
July 25, 2021
My friend, “Mr. Dartmouth”
He was a builder. He built platform tennis courts, an octagon house, athletic teams, a family, friendships. His biggest and enduring “construction” was a relationship with Jesus Christ which became a daily encounter early in life and took him into the next.
Mr. Dartmouth reminded me of the American writer E.B. White, author of the Children’s classic, Charlotte’s Web. With moving words written late in life, E.B. mused about his wife’s gardening:
“As the years went by and age overtook her, there was something comical yet touching in her bedraggled appearance on this awesome occasion… the small hunched-over figure, her studied absorption in the implausible notion that there would be yet another spring, oblivious to the ending of her own days, which she knew perfectly well was near at hand, sitting there with her detailed chart under those dark skies in the dying October, calmly plotting the resurrection.”
That was Mr. Dartmouth, my friend, calmly plotting his resurrection.
Then another Charlotte came along and plotted with him. This Charlotte did not plot with a web. She plotted with Mr. Ed, with Brandy, and with Sonny. That shinning light of a belt buckle still shines… even when the miracles cease.
“A large crowd followed Jesus because they saw the miracles…” Will I follow Him when bad things happen, and there are no miracles? Mr. Dartmouth’s life said, “Yes”! There is always the possibility, when all is said and done, after the shock is over and the tears dried, “we” ourselves might be the miracle. I think Mr. Dartmouth believed this. His friendship was a miracle. (In memory of Richard J. Reilly, Jr. 1935-2020).