“This is the day that the lord has made,  let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24 

We face many things in life that we do not understand. It may be the joy of our team winning a championship game or wandering through the devastation of a hurricane or tornado. Our life is a snapshot of many eras. Have you ever stared at a painting for a long time trying to absorb the various parts from the smile of the Mona Lisa to the strata of the Grand Canyon. A life touches on so many different facets of our reality. I can still remember acting out a scene from the Wizard of Oz in first grade at Waynedale Elementry School at the edge of Fort Wayne, Indiana. I drove by that school a week ago. The two story building with wooden floors is gone replaced by a modern school at the back end of the property. I still remember the fear and trepidation that filled my body the first day I walked through the doors for first grade. I anxiously awaited to meet my teacher, the wife of a professor at Ft. Wayne Bible College, Miss Mitchel. The school was overflowing and our room was in the library. We waited until our new room was prepared. Finally we moved in. Tables in place, new blackboards and coat racks. Our home room parent was Mrs. Rayl. She was my good friend’s mother. Her younger son, Donnie, tagged along for parties. He ran around the room giggling and going up to kiss his brother, my friend. We walked to school with other neighborhood friends like Michael and Diane Hoehn from across the street. Michael was a year older and his sister was in my brothers class, three years ahead of me. It was a fantastic year for me. My parents got a new Chevy, a 1955 model In 1956. Quite a celebration for our us. We had never had a new car. But on our “maiden voyage” to our church camp grounds, when almost  to Marion, Indiana, a skunk ran out in front of my father’s night drive. Suddenly the new car smell was gone! Quickly GONE!! For the next week the car sat under the trees with all four doors open! Life happens and  often we do not feel like having a party! Life changes. My best friend Tom Ray’s small brother took ill and died suddenly, two days later, from a rapid moving leukemia in 1956. We went to the viewing. It was horribly sad but my best friend was not there. His parents didn’t think it was best for him to see his deceased brother. But eleven years later just before graduating high school Tom caught me off guard and asked me, “You viewed my deceased brother, didn’t you?” “Yes, I responded” and he continued “I sent two sticks of gum to be put in his hand. Was it there?” “Yes, I told him. I remember seeing it there.” That same year on Palm Sunday weekend 1956 my playmates from across the street, the Hoehn’s went to Michigan to see Perry Como present a show.  On Monday morning my mother woke my brother and me up early. She had a very difficult time telling us that the Hohen’s had a automobile accident on their way home last night and Diane, our friend, died. We all cried. This was God’s created day but I did NOT feel like rejoicing. At her funeral, her Brownie Troup carried in flowers but I still did not feel like rejoicing. I cried again! Then last week, while in Indiana, I drove by her grave. She was laid to rest sixty-four years ago. I remember still the heaving of my chest when I learned of her death. Now after all of these many years Tom Rayl is still my friend, a wealthy business man. In my mind’s eye I see his brother running and laughing. As I move forward I NOW can rejoice in Dianne’s and Donnie’s presence with the Lord too. 

    There are days that the circumstance of that moment might bring deep sorrow and pain. Rejoice may not be on our mind or in our heart. But God’s peace can cover us like a warm blanket. It wraps us and we feel warmth to the bones. The day my mother stepped into heaven I went home and mowed my parents yard. I wept, laughed and sweat my clothes as I mowed back and forth. Her battle with breast/bone cancer was over. She was at peace and I was putting her yard in order like she loved. I embraced the pain and dealt with the reality. That bright hot Indiana sun created a June day full of flowers and trees waving their boughs and absorbing a summer day, not a frigid, bare winter one.  My souls was frozen due to mother’s death on that June day in 1987. June usually was a time of graduations, vacations, fishing and bees collecting pollen as they visit flower after flower or perhaps it was a time in a hammock, slightly swinging back and forth as the sun brings the earth to life. Bodies become tanned or burned at the beach, all from the same sun. That was the truth of the day, not just my sorrow. We face a deep dent in this time, this day where some will die from Covid-19 and others will later wear a tee-shirt that declares “I survived 2020 Covid-19!”  God is with us and God is good as he cradles us even when we question “What is happening?” Yet …  this is another NEW day, this day! A day to share our concerns, our love and lift up our prayers. No matter what, I WILL REJOICE for God has made this day! TODAY and as I close my eyes and drift off to sleep I need to sing:

“I love you, Lord
And I lift my voice
To worship You
Oh, my soul, rejoice!
Take joy my King
In what You hear
Let it be a sweet, sweet sound
In Your ear”
  – Laurie Brendemuehl Klein

Written by Carl E. Romey, pastor. March 15, 2020