10.18- Who of my readers here would know what happened on October 17, 1962?

 10.18-

Who of my readers here would know what happened on October 17, 1962?

I still remember sitting and reflecting at the young age of 16. Why? Why did people have to die and why did they have to weep and mourn in pain over loss? That was the day I lost my first mentor, my grandad, “Papa Woods.”

My friend, Ron Rose, reminded me this morning of some of the qualities of good influences in his life and it reminded me of my grandad.

Yes, he had his own bad habits that he warned me not to start. Chewing White Tag Tinsley Tobacco.

Yes, he had one strength that when pushed too far out can become what seems like a weakness.

He walked by great faith in God and he was willing to risk all his assets on something he believed in. He had a partnership in a small bottling plant in a small town that never succeeded. He built a house that he had to rent out during the depression rather than being able to live there. Still, he kept his faith in God and his hope was in God rather than in himself.

He was a clean man. He had a clean shaven face. I can still remember his shaving cup and the Palmolive shaving soap and his brush and mirror. He had clean language. My dad said he had never heard him curse once. I suspect he kept his heart and soul clean through seeking forgiveness and grace when he messed up as a all of us learn we must do.

He was authentic. He was the real deal. He was the same on Monday that he was on Sunday at church. The only difference being a suit versus Round House Overalls.

He would let his grandchildren get close without being annoyed.

He was always happy to be with me. He was available and inviting.

He never tried to fix me, but he offered options of new jobs that I had not thought of. Bee keeping and honey harvesting. Bricklaying in the soil for a sidewalk to the outdoor bathroom.

He showed me hope and joy in life in spite of hard things that he had experienced. He had lost his father in death to an accident. He had lost a child at birth. He had lost money on business ventures. He faced the hard times of the depression like everyone else.

He was an imperfect man, but he made me enjoy my life with him by the peaceful, quiet way of his life and his constant acceptance of me and others. I never heard him say a bad thing about anyone.

Then on 10.17.1962, 59 years ago today, he moved to his home in heaven that is the perfect home for him with the only perfect man who ever walked the earth, Jesus Christ.

His hope was in Him and so is mine. Thank you God for the life of Orv Woods.

Larry Wishard, 10.17.21

13 If I speak with the tongues of mankind and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give away all my possessions to charity, and if I surrender my body so that I may [a]glory, but do not have love, it does me no good.

4 Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. 5 It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, 6 it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 it [b]keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of [c]prophecy, they will be done away with; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away with. 9 For we know in part and prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away with. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I [d]became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror [e]dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the [f]greatest of these is love.