NOVEMBER 2023 NEWSLETTER

 November 2023 Newsletter

Robert Lindenberger

God is good all the time; all the time, God is good! Amen?

This newsletter will be different than any I have ever written and shared. Older man dreams – that means we remember things from the past, and there is a lot to remember. I want this newsletter to be a remembrance and dedicated to my sister, Irene. She has been alive on planet Earth for 100 years, and her husband, Guy, is 101.

I can’t remember much before the Japs bombed Pearl Harbor, but I do remember that day, and as the president said,” THIS DAY WILL GO DOWN IFINATLY.” The Boys, as Mother called them, went off to war. You, Irene, graduated from high school and married Guy, who also went to war.

I can remember sitting at the grown-up’s table, you and Drue, and finally, Mid reading letters and writing to your loved ones. And I remember you, Drue, and Mid twirling your batons in the yard. And I remember Mother saying, it’s your turn to take care of Bobby. And you said, “Fine, I’m going to take them to get a milkshake.” I asked you why you said for your birthday, but it was April, and my birthday is February 3. But it was good, and I tried to drink the whole thing, and you know what happened. I embarrassed you by throwing up.

When the boys came home from war, everything changed. Mother was still working at the Visco, and I came to live with you during the day when Mother worked, and you put me to work building the house up on the hill. I worked with an old man, can’t remember his name, but we cleared the land and dug the footer. Then Edward came over and laid the blocks and, finally, the bricks. Before the house was completed, I moved back home during the day because mother stopped working at the Visco. But Edward would bring me along, and I carried the bricks to him to lay after the roof was on I was no longer needed. But I remember good tuna fish sandwiches you brought us for lunch, one stick of celery, coffee for the man, and juice for me. And even a bottle of pop sometimes was a real treat to me.

Shortly after you moved in, you came to get Mother, Dad, Mary Gladys, and me and took us to your new home for dinner. You showed us around the house, and before we sat down, Mother hugged you so hard I feared for you. Even Dad gave you a hug.

I don’t know how, but I became a teenager, and Guy would come and get me and take me to the races with him, and you had a snack for us when we got home.

I went to the Navy and came home on leave, and the family came to your house for dinner. When we got out of the car, a big goose came to chase us away from your home. Dad shook his finger and yelled, “If you pec any one of us, I’ll ring your neck!” And that goose lowered his neck as if he was saying okay and walked the other way.

Irene, the highlight of my life, some of that you lighted even brighter, was when you and Guy brought Mother and Dad to Neptune to hear me preach. Will you allow me to reiterate some of that sermon? John 1:5, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Careful readers of Scripture have noted that the book of Genesis and the Gospel of John began the same way: “in the beginning.” John used Genesis as a template for introducing Jesus Christ to his readers. God started to overcome the chaos and darkness of the pre-creation world by speaking like into existence(Genesis 1:3). Using the theme of the night overcoming darkness, John returned Jesus as the Word of God that brings spiritual order and to a spiritually dark and chaotic world (John 1:1 –4

But, John writes, the world did not recognize (John 1:10) or understand the light that God sent into the world in Christ. Translating John 15 interprets differently whether the world did not “comprehend” the light or “overcome” the light – the original text allows either translation. And actually, both translations are, too. Not all the world has comprehended the light of God, and the world (“ the darkness”) has certainly not overcome the light, which is Christ.

In creation and incarnation, God’s light in Christ penetrated and offered the darkness of this world. Give thanks for the day that God’s light and overcome every darkness.

Irene, when someone asks why or how it came to be that you saw 100. You tell them, “I was kind and helped my Mother and Dad in their old age. I kept the only commandment that has promise. “Honor your mother and Father, and thy days shall be long.”

Jesus loves you, and so do I.

Your Brother bob

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2Esther McCormack and Janice Barnhart