An Interesting Week in Heaven

My Uncle Butch died peacefully last Wednesday evening. Shortly after Cousin Sylvia stood beside his bed and sang "I'll Fly Away," he slipped into the presence of the Lord. I've been wanting to say something about this for over a week now, but I haven't been exactly sure what to say. As you know from some of my previous posts, Uncle Butch was a larger than life character. We rehashed old stories and even told some new ones when we gathered for his burial earlier this week. Some of my favorites include:

The way he used to make my mom ride in the floorboard of his car when they were in high school because he didn't want other girls who might pull up next to him to think he had another chick in the car with him. This went on until Mimi pulled up next to them one day and asked him where his sister was, and Mom popped up smiling and said "here I am!"

There was the time Mimi was on her way home to punish all three siblings for misbehaving, but right before she got there, Butch his his head on a kitchen cabinet hard enough that it bled. When my mom tried to help him, he told her to leave him there, Mimi would feel sorry for him and forget she was mad a them. An hour later, cleaned up, and sitting at an ice cream parlor, he winked at my mom and said, "told ya so!"

And, then there was the night he borrowed Pappy's car for a date, and stayed out past curfew. He knew Pappy needed the car to get to work for his overnight shift, but once he knew he'd missed the deadline and was going to be in trouble, he decided to stay out all night and just have fun. Mimi tracked him down at his date's house watching movies with another couple at 2:00 a.m.!

Somehow, knowing all these stories and so many more, it seems fitting to me that my last phone call from Uncle Butch came just a week or so before his death. Up to the point that he got too weak to dial the phone, he'd been calling every other day or so just to tell me he loved me. I admit, there were times I wasn't sure I had time to answer the phone, but I was always afraid I'd miss his last call. Sure enough, I was sitting on the couch one afternoon at home, and he called. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: Hello, what are you doing?
B: Who's this?
Me: You're favorite niece, Kristi, of course! (Sorry, Addie, Tiff, and Ava :-P)
B: Oh, I called the wrong person.
Me: (laughing) Well, good to talk to you, too.
B: Yeah, well, I love ya, bye.
Click. Silence. That was just his way.

I had a lot of valid disagreements with Uncle Butch when it came to politics and theology over the years, but in the days before his death, Uncle Tracey reported that he became very serious, made peace with many of the people he'd had contentions with, and told Tracey, "I'm ready to see Jesus." Through all of our laughter and tears ("Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion!"), I keep thinking, "I bet it's been an interesting week in Heaven."

I Thessalonians 4:13 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14 We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage each other with these words.