The Book Has Closed

“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:56-58).

Hey Gang:  There is a sadness and heaviness in my heart this morning for I lost an old friend.  The tractor doctor call with the sad news that the Allis Chalmers D 14 was declared dead from the cancer of no oil into its extremities.  He assured me it was a painful and quick death and it did not suffer.   A least as much as I am suffering today for the loss of this old by faithful friend.

As I stood in the shower this morning, the thought came into my mind that it really was not the tractor that I mourned but the memories that went back more than fifty years  of a similar Allis Chalmers D 14 that I had the privilege of getting to know first-hand. 

It was in that period that I refer to as our Abrahamic period:  we answered God’s call to sell our California home, quit our jobs, pack our four kids into two very suspect vehicles and go to a place that He would show us. 

We did not have a clue where or what would be waiting for us at the end of our journey, but Satan did He threw many monkey wrenches in our path, hoping for us to reverse course and turn from whence we came. 

For two years I was the only ‘unemployed director of a non-existent boy’s home.’  There were many times when I cried out, as did David, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.  O my God, I cry but You do not answer.  (Psa. 22:1). (Crowd standing near His cross heard Jesus utter this same first line. Matt 27:46.)

It was during those wilderness years when the door swung open for me to help a farmer and ran into my first Allis Chalmers D 14;  it became my sanity.  I loved to greet it in the morning and hear the roar of its engine.  This along with a dear lady by the name of Jesse who happened to be my land lady who mentored me and encouraged me and am sure she did a heap of praying for me, filled the long empty hours.

As I stood in the shower, many of those very precious memories resurfaced in my mind.  The evenings when we played ball in the yard with the kids, the time I built the kids Christmas gifts, for we did not have money to purchase things, and my months in the sugar-bush to help a friend  he need.

I learned, in the first years of the Eagle Village, that not one single minute of those two years of waiting was wasted.  God was honing my wheel for what was to come.   

So, yes, I will miss the Allis Chalmers D 14 tractor, but I will never forget the wonderful experiences they provided for me.   Isn’t that the real VALUE OF THE BANGLES AND BEADS OF THIS WORLD?  These fade away. BUT, our relationship with the LORD never fades.  Eternity goes on…… and on………. and on………………. and on………………………………

Blessings,

Gramps