Remembering the Departed

Do you have eyes, and not see, and do you have ears and not hear? And do you not remember? Mark 8:18

I remember Luke and Pernie. This past week I visited their little homestead deep in the woods of South-Eastern Oklahoma. There’s not much there now. The stone foundation of the little house Luke built can still be found, if you know where to look. Some of the detritus of decades they spent in solitude stand out to the watchful eye. They were an interesting pair.

The first time I met Luke, he was friendly. I’d been told he would not be. Pernie invited me into the tiny rock and mud structure they called home. I’d been told she would not. I learned a bit about them over the few years when I would occasionally stop by. He died of a stroke, probably. That’s what she told me the last time I saw her in the little house, alone. She reluctantly moved away to a nursing home for a few months, and willed herself to join Luke.

I could not help but think about their legacy this week. What is left of their brief journey through this life? Almost no one knew much about them. I never found but one or two other persons who had ever visited them up there in the woods. I never spoke to anyone who had been in the “house.” I don’t know of anyone who had the pleasure of walking the woods with Luke and hearing how he survived without any of the trappings we call necessary.

I am sure that if one did not know about this place, so remote getting there is a difficult task, it would never be noticed. The Nature Conservancy, which owns the property now, has seen to that.

When you and I are gone from this dimension we call life, what will be left behind to identify us? Most of us will leave off-spring. Some will leave financial resources, tangible items that someone will cherish. But will we have passed this way without leaving a significant witness to the Truth? Will we depart this life without having an impact for Christ on those around us? Is it possible we will have used our resources without some consideration for the spiritual well-being of others? Will our words and actions have been those that edified, encouraged, enlightened, and lloved?

I picked up a small, unmarked, glass jar, lid intact, this week. I wondered if whatever came in it had made Pernie happy. Did it satisfy her sweet tooth? Did it make her smell like the flowers she cultivated? Did it hold some medicine that made her feel better?

I hope when I’ve gone to be with Jesus, someone will hold up something I have touched and remark, “Now there’s a Truth one can live by.”