I just spent the past 2ish days at home in Texas.
…I sat on the toilet seat only to jump right back up because it was freezing and hurt my butt! I slept in my bed with lots of pillow and soft sheets. Ironically, I woke up with a really sore back and a crick in my neck. I had access to a bazillion outfits in my closet and yet I wore the same thing the whole time I was home.
You see, I haven’t really been overseas long enough to make me melt at the sight of mcdonalds or flushing toilets or dessert. Ok…mayyybe I melted at the dessert table today, but the rest…truly didn’t phase me. I’ve actually really enjoyed living the simple life overseas and I love all that God is showing me and teaching me through that. So I can promise you that while I’m sure some of my squad would’ve jumped at the chance to go back home for a few days…I was quite content in the Dominican Republic.
But last weekend, God decided it was time to get the party started and brought this incredible man up to be with Him forever.
This is my uncle Jerry.
Today we celebrated his life. I know that term is thrown around often with funerals and yet rarely is it ever truly a celebration. I wish the whole world could’ve been in the church with my family today because Jerry’s life gave us every reason to celebrate!
A lot of the world would look at Jerry and say sorry…as if he and the people around him missed out on something. But honestly, if you don’t have someone like my uncle in your life…IM the one who’s sorry.
He lived 51 years of the absolute best life. I can’t even imagine what thats like…thinking about it literally blows my mind! He never knew worry, never felt stress, never knew lust or jealousy or bitterness. Anger and sadness were hardly words that Jerry even heard.
Everything he did was pure and innocent. Sitting in funeral stuff yesterday and today listening to everyone tell stories about him, I just kept hearing the words of Jesus saying that whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.
Thanks to my uncle, I have the most vivid picture of what that looks like. For example, in the last year of his life Jerry loved his Bible. He hardly went anywhere without it. He would read his Bible all the time. The funny thing is…my uncle can’t read! You would look over and his Bible would be upside down and sideways but his lips would be muttering something 100 mph! I love it. You tell Jerry that Jesus loves him and he believes you. You tell him Jesus died for him and he says ok. You tell him he’s going to heaven and he just smiles. Pure faith…so beautiful. I decided today that I’m actually super jealous of him.
When my uncle was living on his own, he would eat a different meal each night of the week. Pizza, pancakes, etc. This helped him both with him grocery shopping and keeping track of what day of the week it was. Friday was always pancakes. If you tried to get him to eat pancakes any other day of the week he absolutely would not do it. Pancakes are for Fridays!
Uncle Jerry had no enemies. Everyone who met him, loved him. He was such a light. My mom said it perfectly yesterday. She said that when she sat down to try to write, she couldn’t put together full sentences so she decided to just start writing down words that came to mind when she thought of him. When she looked down at her list it read something like- pure, gentle, loving, kind, faithful, innocent, laughter, caring, peaceful, etc. Looking down it was clear that she’d pretty much just written down all the fruits of the spirit from Galatians 5.
My uncle was specially created and formed by my God. You couldn’t deny it if you tried. His life radiated with the Spirit of God. I miss that already. Thank you GOD for such a blessing.
This is the most random post ever. My team can laugh at me because I'm usually super anal about my words and grammar and checking to make sure everything flows well. But really…I dont care about that tonight…strange. I just wanted to share him with you all because he was wonderful. So so wonderful. And I can't keep someone like that to myself 🙂
Uncle Jerry taught me and my family so much- unconditional love….child-like faith…pure joy…but most importantly…pancakes on Fridays!!
Ps- I'm hopping back on a plane in a few hours back to the DR then on to Haiti. Blog (plus video) coming this week about my month in the Dominican Republic. God did amazing things 🙂
