San Antonio

What a whirlwind two-day trip this has been. I am in San Antonio, Texas to officiate at the funeral of a dear friend from our Fairview days, Bob Cann. I have learned a lot more about Bob and Alicia in the last 24 hours than I ever knew in the 6 years we were in the same congregation. That is very sad to me, because looking back I would have enjoyed talking to Bob about his life in the Air Force -- how he accidentally soloed long before he ever went up with an instructor, and how he eventually flew a B-25 in the Pacific theater during WWII. To the left is a picture of Bob in his training plane - I think this is a Corsair -- though I could also be very wrong!!

Bob also loved being a lawyer and got his degree going to night school while he was in the Air Force. And even in the hospital during the last week of his life, he wanted to "do some business" in helping some of his nurses set up trusts. He never retired from his profession until the day he died!

My point, I guess, is that there are people all  around us, who we think we know, or in a more problematic way, think we know well enough already. And we really have no idea who they are and what their lives have been. This event has encouraged me to reach out to people around me more, especially those in our church family. Our whole family loves reading books and sharing what we read. Well, those around us all have a story,too, and it can be a neat challenge for each of us to open the book of other people's lives and let them share it with us.