My good friend and neighbor left this world to be with Jesus almost two years ago. In yesterday’s devotion I used the word “amongst,” and when I typed it, I thought of him and smiled.

 

One of Gary’s favorite stories was Jerry Clower’s tale of a coon hunt. We listened to it together several times. Mr. Clower tells how He was out with his brother and their dogs coon hunting in the middle of the night when they came across two other hunters and joined them. One of these other hunters didn’t believe in shooting racoons, but would climb up the tree and knock the coon out of the tree with a sharp stick to give him a fighting chance against the dogs. So the dogs treed a coon and old John climbs up the tree in the dark. He takes his stick out of his pocket to poke the coon, but it wasn’t a racoon. It was a lynx, a bobcat. And they went to wrestling up there in the tree. His friends on the ground didn’t know it was a lynx, and they were encouraging him, “Knock him out, John, knock him out.” John cried out to his friend on the ground, “Shoot Him. Shoot Him.”  His friend cried back, “I can’t shoot him. I might hit you.”  Old John said, “Well just shoot up in here amongst us. One of us has got to have some relief.”  He shared that punch line with me many, many times over the years, and it always made him smile, and more often than not made him laugh, too. “One of us has got to have some relief.”

 

Gary has his relief now. As I said, he is with his Savior. He was a good, kind, caring, decent, funny and loving man. He was a joy to be around. Throughout his life, Gary befriended hundreds, if not thousands, of folks, truly making people feel their value and worth. He loved his family deeply, and joking around was his art form. His favorite verse was on a little plaque: “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it” (Hebrews 13:2). He certainly did that. He was both entertaining and hospitable. He was the kind of guy that would do anything for his neighbor, and he took the scriptural view that everyone was his neighbor.  

 

He was a good friend and neighbor to me. Just a couple of weeks before he died, Cheryl and I went to dinner with Gary and his wife. We just had a garage door put in our newly constructed garage. He told me he didn’t like it. I said, “What?” He said, “I don’t like it.  I can’t see if you are home or not.” He was always watching out for us.  

 

But Gary is not in heaven today because of who he was or what he did. Gary is most certainly in heaven with His Lord. He is there because of who Jesus was and is and all that He did for Gary and all of us. The passage I shared with him just before he left this world was… 

 

2 Timothy 4:6–8  For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.  

 

He kept that faith. He knew Jesus was born for him, lived a perfect life for him, died to pay for his sins and rose again to give him victory over death. He kept that faith and He has his crown of righteousness.  

 

Gary is home, even if the garage door is closed. Jesus took Him there. He has His relief. We can all look forward to that same relief because of what Jesus did for us.