Several of you have kindly asked for a full report of my weekend with the family and church in Rio Hondo as we celebrated Nana and Papa's 40th Anniversary as pastor there. I am still working on coming up with the words for that, but I thought I'd start by publishing the tribute I delivered during the worship service Sunday morning. It'll tell you a little bit more about who Nana and Papa are to me at least. Later, I'll work on coming up with words for the weekend celebration itself!
"Three" Minutes about Papa ...
I had a really great speech prepared for this morning that contained three points and a psalm. I mean, it was a perfect sermon. Papa would have been proud. But, it didn’t contain anything you didn’t already know about my Papa and Nana, and it wasn’t anything any of you couldn’t have shared, given the chance. I’d written about how I know that Papa prays, and what I believe that faithful prayer life has done for this family and for this church. I’m convinced that Papa’s consistent prayer life is the secret to all that we’re celebrating this weekend. Papa doesn’t just pray, he gets on his knees and calls our names before the Lord, often shedding tears on our behalf. Papa’s prayers are the most precious gifts I’ve ever received. I wrote about how Nana reads her Bible each morning at the kitchen table, and how I want to be a faithful student of the Word of God like both of them are. But, none of that conveyed what I’m really celebrating this weekend in my heart. None of it really told you who Nana and Papa are to me, to our family.
Then, I got a call from Jaclyn a few nights ago. She didn’t want to get up here and talk, but there were some things she wanted to be sure I said. - Now, I have a Spanish degree from Hardin-Simmons University, but Jaclyn, she went to College Station and majored in Speech Communication. Evidently, what a speech communication degree from Texas A & M University will get you is a seat on the front row this morning! Right, Jaclyn?
No, seriously. Jaclyn called me a few nights ago after I sent her my notes for this morning and asked me if I could add just a few thoughts from all of us grandkids collectively. I honestly think it was just what this talk needed, the personal touch that really does make it something only we can share. Because there’s something else about Nana and Papa that marks their character and changes lives forever. Nana and Papa love me. Well, they love Steven and Daisy and Jaclyn and Danny and Travis and Jill, and Gina, too, of course. My point is, they have loved us as a family in a way that none of us will ever be the same. In fact, we probably will love others differently, better, because of it. I actually have a quote about this from one of my friends. In writing to me about this weekend, she said, “One piece of evidence of you Papa’s legacy that speaks volumes to me is how close your family is. You and your cousins always talk and hang out and love spending time together. You all actually
like each other...the good and the bad. You talk to each other throughout the year, and when you are together, you enjoy each other.” It’s true. I confess. We do.
Jaclyn went through the family scrapbook and letters we wrote to Nana and Papa for this weekend, and made a list of things that none of us will ever forget. It was so fun to see how many of us shared similar thoughts! The first thing that comes to mind when we talk about Nana is food. Nana loves to feed us, but she’s very careful to feed us the right kinds of food. How many other kids look forward to eating such delicacies as “crockpot chicken” “ak-mak crackers with ‘Papa’s cheese’” – that’s mozzarella, if you didn’t know -- or “avocado-bean sprout sandwiches” when they go to their grandmother’s house??? My personal favorite was the time she wanted us to eat oatmeal muffins, so she baked Reeses’s peanut butter cups into the center of each muffin. How long do you think it took us to figure out we could pull the muffin tops off, discard them, and get straight to the candy? ;-) Of course, we also dipped our crockpot chicken in ranch dressing, and Travis always found a way to get more than his share of pudding pops out of her, too. But, she did try, though!
Christmas is always a good time at Nana and Papa’s. As you know, kitty cats are a very important part of being at Nana and Papa’s. And, even though she pretends like she doesn’t love those cuddly little fur balls Papa’s always feeding on the back porch, Nana has a bright red Christmas apron with a kitty cat on it. She puts it on whenever she knows we’re coming over, and greets us at the front door proclaiming, “Merry Kissmas!” and stops us for a hug and a kiss before we can enter the living room. We love it! Nana’s house is also where you go when you don’t feel well and need to just lay on the couch and be taken care of. Nobody can fix a tray of comfort food like Nana can. Makes me think
maybe she loves us or something.
Then there’s Papa. I know he said just 3 minutes, but since I’m the only grandkid getting to actually speak today, I figure I can take at least 5 (one for each of us), and if I go over, I’ll blame it on the spouses and the great-grandkids. In fact, at the rate this family’s multiplying, we could be here a while! ;-)
Papa, when we started thinking about things we wanted to share about you, we had a whole other set of memories. I’ve already mentioned your love for kittens, and your love for airplanes and flying is no secret. I think Steven, Travis, or one of our dads would have to talk about you love for all things remote control. But today, it’s the yearly trips to Wal-Mart we have to talk about. Every year before school started, Papa would load us up in his car and drive us into Harlingen to shop. Jaclyn and I tried coming up with a list of the things we brought home with us from those trips. We named everything from video games, watches, baby dolls, and camouflage pants to parakeets and hamsters! Ha! You should have seen our shock when those two “female” hamsters started multiplying! It was Steven and Travis who always pushed the limit. Jaclyn, Gina, and I, of course, have always been angels. ;-) Sometimes, I still have dreams about the five of us being kids and making our way through the mall in Harlingen, shopping with Papa. I’m not sure any of those gifts survived our childhoods, but I am certain the memories of those times with him and knowing that he loves us enough to brave such an outing – more than once! – will stick with us forever.
I wish I had time to tell you about gathering around the fireplace to read the Christmas story each year before we opened presents, quoting the familiar passages of Luke 2 together and being reminded what we really celebrate each December. I’d tell you about loading up in the old Suburban to go looking at Christmas lights, about airplane rides where we got to handle the controls for a time, and about our family ski trip to Red River. I’d like to tell you about playing “house” and “King of the Hill” in the storm shelter in their backyard and birthday parties by the pool. And, I wish I had words to tell you about what it means to each and every one of us that we never get off the phone without Papa telling us how much he loves us, how proud he is of us, and that he prays for us every day, that God will keep us safe, provide for all of our needs, and that we will live to please the Lord.
Since I do have the microphone this morning, I am going to take time to tell you one story that is just about me and Papa. It happened when I was a little girl, but the lesson lives on. As you know, my daddy was a football coach here in Rio Hondo. And, many Friday nights, Nana and Papa would drive Mama and me to the games. One Friday night, we were about halfway to Rio Hondo when I realized that I’d forgotten the bobcat paw tattoos that the cheerleaders had given Daddy for my face. I was distraught! Mama and I were in the backseat, and she was trying desperately to keep me quiet about it. But, Papa knew something was wrong. He asked me what was the matter, and I wailed, “I forgot my cat paws!” I don’t think it took him but a minute to decide to turn the car around, go back to the house, and let me get those silly cat paws. To this day, whenever Papa signs anything for me, he includes the tag line, “don’t forget your cat paws!” I asked him a few years ago why he turned around for something so trivial. His answer has stuck with me, and has probably influenced more decisions than I realize. He said, “Baby, I knew you’d get over it if I didn’t turn around, and soon enough, you’d forget about those cat paws. But, I also knew that if I did turn around, you’d remember it for a long, long time.” There are a million different ways I know my Papa loves me, and the first one I’d point to is the cat paws. I’m so thankful he was wise enough to think beyond the 20 minutes it put us behind that night in order to see the opportunity to leave a lasting impression of his love on me for me and seize it.
This is a farming community. You understand the Law of the Harvest, right? Galatians 6:7-9 says, “Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. He who sows to please the flesh, from the flesh reaps destruction, but he who sows to please the Spirit reaps eternal life. Let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not give up.” I came to Papa just a few weeks ago with some questions about ministry and some of the difficult people and situations I was seeing. I was weary, I confess, and I think I wanted him to tell me it was okay to wash my hands of it all and walk away. Papa didn’t answer my questions directly. Instead, he told me a series of stories from his own life and ministry. In each story, the conclusion, the result, the fruit of his decisions to love, to serve, to sow in obedience to the Lord was not made evident until many years after the initial seeds were sown. Sometimes as many as 35 years! I can be a slow learner at times, but I eventually got it when he looked me squarely in the eye and said, “Never give up. You don’t know how or when God is going to reward obedience, but you’ll never be sorry you obeyed.”
Deuteronomy 7:9 says, “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.” I’m only the second generation removed from this great legacy, but in closing, I have to share a quote with you from one of the letters another of my friends wrote for this occasion. This comes from Erin, a young woman who teaches Bible study in my home each week. She writes, “The influence of Papa’s ministry isn’t going to stop with Kristen, or any of the Horton Clan, because more often than I’d like to admit, I have found myself starting a story with, ‘My friend Kristen’s Papa …” My only hope is that in sharing those stories, I too, would radiate the same passionate, ever-faithful, love of the Lord.”
I’m not much younger today than Papa was when he first came to Rio Hondo. (Steven’s even closer to that age! ;-) I think about that a lot, wondering what, if any, decisions I’m making today as I follow the Lord that will be remembered even five years from now, much less forty. I asked Papa about that not too long ago. How does one come to a town at 32 years of age and stay there, serving faithfully for 40 (and many more to come?)? He smiled, shook his head, and spoke deliberately when he said, “One day at a time, baby, you do it one day at a time.”
