Hi, my name is Danny.
Some of your may know me, and some of you may not. You, who don’t know me, may think that I am some kind of puppet that you might find in a toy chest or in a closet or attic. The truth is, I am way more important than that.
I have a very dear friend named Arlene. Arlene and I go way back. For many years Arlene and I would talk to the children of Christ United Methodist Church. Arlene and I were inseparable. But then one day, as will happen in life, Arlene got sick. I was very upset, as were a lot of people that knew Arlene. I got so upset that I lost my voice. What happened was that my dear friend, Arlene, went to live with Jesus. As I said, a lot of people were sad, but one who was especially sad was Arlene’s husband, Chuck. You see Chuck didn’t know Jesus like Arlene did and really didn’t come to church with us. But Chuck did miss Arlene very much and he knew how special I was to Arlene, so after Arlene left he wanted to keep me around as a reminder of his dear wife.
It’s hard to imagine that an inanimate object like me could have been so important to Chuck. But somewhere in the process of me spending time with Chuck, and all the prayers that Arlene and her friends had prayed for Chuck, I have to believe that he got it. He had to see the love and compassion that Arlene had for the children and her church and her God and Chuck. And more importantly the love that Jesus had for Chuck.
And again, as life will have it, Chuck had been ill for a while and his illness got the better of him. Chuck knew the love of the people of the church and the many prayers for Arlene and himself. We all hope, in our hearts of hearts, that right now Chuck and Arlene are together in heaven singing the praises of God and longing for the day to be reunited with their brothers and sisters at Christ United Methodist Church.
In the meantime, I am sitting here patiently waiting for my voice to come back. Chuck wanted me to return to the church and be an example of all the good works that had been accomplished in God’s name. For after all, you know, it says in Luke 19:40 if we don’t praise the Lord, the rocks will cry out. I am certainly not a rock, but I will be singing God’s praises any time anywhere with the helps of some loving human like Arlene who gave voice to the love of the Lord to whomever would listen. I am bursting at the seams to share the love of the Lord like I used to with Arlene. So keep praising God along with Arlene and Chuck, and who knows, one day you may hear my voice again, telling stories and singing — “Tell me the stories of Jesus I love to hear; things I would ask him to tell me if He were here: scenes by the wayside, tales of the sea, stories of Jesus, tell them to me.”
Your loving brother, Danny