"Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." Philippians 2:4
April 15, 2019 - In 1984, I was called to conduct a funeral service for one of my best friends, Gordon Reynolds. A witness to the Gordon's car accident said he was trying to hold down a stack of insurance papers in his convertible when he lost control of the car.
I met Gordon when I became Pastor of the Fletcher Emmanuel Baptist Church of Lumberton Texas. He'd taught High School English for several years before joining the Blue Cross Blue Shield Insurance Company. For six years we attended church together, hunted and fished together, and enjoyed many hours of innocent hilarity.
In his eulogy I spoke of his remarkable personality, his unusual memory…and his interest in others that earned him his many friends. He seemed to remember everyone… and everything… and rarely forgot a name.
After the funeral in Lumberton, we drove to a Nederland, Texas cemetery for the interment. As the hearse driver was instructing the pallbearers, he suddenly fell to the ground with a heart attack. Susie, Gordon's widow (a registered nurse) performed oral resuscitation but was unable to revive him.
On the hour-long trip back to Lumberton, I rode in the car with three other men. As we drove away, one of them immediately began a long discourse about himself, his family, his education…hobbies...his everything. He rambled on and on for one long, boring hour while the rest of us sat… and suffered.
As I was driving back to Louisiana, I began thinking: What if Gordon had been riding with us on the way home that day? What would it have been like? I knew the answer. He would have asked us a thousand questions and by the time we got home, he would have known all about us. After all these years have passed, I still miss Gordon.
He left me a lot of good memories.
