Servant of God

Great uncle Joe passed away last week.  We never knew him all that well, which is very unfortunate. Meeting him once though, I knew immediately who he counted as his savior. Joe never worried about money and never cared about money. He did things for his friends, who were many, because he wanted to. When they would ask how much he wanted, he'd always ask, well, whatever you think it's worth. Most of the people in the church today ( a tiny little Missouri Synod church down by Horicon) owed him money-the church was overflowing. But, it wasn't because he did things for free- it was because he spent his life being a servant and friend to others. The pastor told a story about Joe today that spoke to his greatest love- God---

The pastor was assigned to fill in at this church until they could find a new pastor- little did he know, he would, one year later, become that new pastor. One of the men in the church came by during the pastor's first week and said there was someone he wanted the pastor to meet. That afternoon they drove out to Joe's house, walked in ( it was always unlocked) and found Joe in the shop making furniture. The pastor and Joe were introduced at which point the pastor said to Joe that he thought they might sometime sit and talk about the bible, etc. Joe promptly shut off his machines and said, ok, and they sat and talked for hours that afternoon. The pastor said in 33 years of preaching nobody had ever dropped everything they were doing to talk with him about Jesus.

Joe made 150 Christmas cakes every year and delivered them to shut ins in the neighborhood. This last year, while delivering those cakes, he fell down a flight of stairs and never quite recovered. In the hospital Joe said the hardest thing was that his eyes were no longer good enough to read the bible. Though scripture was on his heart, he found solace in reading those words.

  I guess there's no real point to this story other than to share it- because it seemed such a disservice to not share- know that the things you do, the times you drop everything to be a servant and share with someone, even one other person, that it makes a world of difference.....