Uncle Big, Uncle Big, Uncle Big, Big, BIG!

So we found out yesterday that my Uncle Big died. Nobody is sure how and it came as the biggest shock. He was only 52. While it's all really really sad, I'm somehow finding comfort in the situation, becuase I know that he's in Heaven. I remember growing up that sometimes he would talk about Jesus so much that I wondered if there was anything else he knew how to talk about. Now, I'm so thankful for all the time he spent reading the Bible and pouring into the church and God's Kingdom. I was reading this morning in my "quiet time" and it suddenly dawned on me that while Jesus was on Earth, he was a carpenter-he built things. It never occured to me before, but it seemed to have been a foreshadowing of what was to come. Now that he is in Heaven and dwells among his people, he is also a carpenter...only, of people. He builds and shapes and molds pepole into the man/woman He wants them to be. And the thing that was so cool to me this morning was that now, Uncle Big gets to be a carpenter right alongside of Jesus in Heaven. I know he's up there smiling down on us and thinking we're a whole bunch of sorry sacks (one of Uncle Big's coined phrases) becuase we're a little slow on the uptake of what Jesus tries to tell us. He's up there hanging out fully the person he is meant to be and loving life! And now that he's no longer walking among us and being a light for others around him on the earth (as he most certainly was), he is a carpenter with Jesus helping to shape us into the people that God wants us to be. Pretty awesome picture. So, here's to you, Uncle Big. We all love you and will miss you so much. But you will certainly never be forgotten. A little piece of you is in and with each of us, you sack of seeds.