My apologies for those of you who came visiting and couldn’t read anything on my website… a faulty plugin was the culprit and I didn’t realize that there was even a problem until I received an e-mail about it… Thanks Jeremy! Things should be back to normal now… again, sorry.

When the mists have rolled in splendor from the beauty of the hills, and the sunlight falls in gladness on the river and the rills, we recall our Father’s promise in the rainbow of the spray: We shall know each other better when the mists have rolled away…

My grandfather was a good man… quiet and hard-working… a veteran and an upstanding member of the Hamburg community. He loved his family and his family loved him. My grandfather also was a fisherman. I have never met another person that loved fishing more than he did and yet it never seemed to me that he had an obsession with catching the biggest or the most fish… that was less important than the process of fishing. He seemed to be more interested in the serenity and peace of a big lake and a small boat… even if the tranquility was often interrupted by my blabbering on and on about wanting to catch a really big fish. He taught me invaluable lessons about being still and being quiet… I still apply a fisherman’s mentality at times when I become stressed.

During the past couple of years, my grandfather’s body and mind were ravaged by Alzheimer’s disease… he knew me less and less. When the delusions that come with Alzheimer’s were really bad, one of the few things that still made sense to him was fishing. So my mother would take him as often as possible until he got to a point physically where he just could no longer continue. The fog of Alzheimer’s slowly stole away the man that I knew… leaving the entire family wishing that there was something that we could do to make things better… it’s hard to give up control, I guess.

I saw my grandfather on Mother’s Day… he was in a hospital bed in his home and his shell of a body was beginning to show signs of giving up. I saw my grandmother on Mother’s Day… she held his hand and stroked his head… he still understood love… that’s good to know.

Last night, my mother sat with my grandfather and held his hand as his breathing became deep and labored. She lovingly told him that it was time to get up and go fishing. Less than a minute later, my grandfather traded in his earthly body for a heavenly one. I know that one day he’ll recognize me once again… when the mists have rolled away. He’s fishing with Jesus now… maybe not actually fishing, but he was never all that interested in the actual fish anyway… he just wanted to sit with Jesus for a bit.

…We shall know as we are known, nevermore to walk alone; In the dawning of the morning of that bright and happy day, we shall know each other better when the mists have rolled away.

Yeah… so I’m redesigning my website right now… please be patient with me as I make changes. Lots of music and photos coming soon… also a store… you know, to buy stuff… CD is almost here.

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. (Genesis 2:1-3)

Have you ever wondered why God rested on the seventh day? When I was younger, that question bothered me… I mean, He’s God… He doesn’t NEED to rest, right? I have recently come to perhaps a better understanding of this (other than the one that I always heard… “He rested on the seventh day so that we would know to observe a Sabbath”)… I think that God was being an example for us in how we should act after creating. God created us and also, in turn, wants us to create whether that is through reproducing or through artistic endeavors. In every case of creation that we are involved in, we should (like God) rest. At the end of labor and delivery, for example, a new mother rests. I find myself at the end of a long and intense creative project and the only thing that makes sense right now is rest. I’m glad that God has created me in His image!

By the way, the picture above is from a man in our church named Jim Baker. He has some outstanding pictures in his Flickr gallery… click the pic to visit him and leave him a comment or two about his photos.