Still afloat in the fog of frenzied fellowship, I pause to reflect on our
fabulous fortieth class reunion from Mount Carmel.
Could this have been a foretaste of heaven?
From as far east as New Jersey: Barbara (Hess) Jones and Connie Loveland String From his western ranch in Montana: Elvan Lamb From the north:
Michigan residents: Sharon (Cummings) Barker, Penny (Schaefer) West, Margaret (Wheeler) VanKuiken
Indiana residents: Judy (Mendenhall) McDonald and Karen (Richards) Lowry
Ohio residents: Mildred (Caldwell) Paul and John Remali From the south:
Tennessee: Steve Martin, Joyce (Bradley) Robertson
Florida: Linda (Laub) Rozar
Texas: Sharon (Martin) McGuire We all converged on southeastern Kentucky where Phyllis (Davis) Mills and Jonah Mitchell had prepared a place for us in Lexington. Along with ten spouses, our group swelled to a total of twenty-five. How, though, do classmates recognize each other after so many years and tears? From military defense of our country in Vietnam to disease, divorce, death (some spouses, children, grandchildren), devastation, and the daily-ness of life on "this" side of fifty, each of us has matured just a bit since graduation day in 1965. The few of us who had attended Mt. Carmel Former Student Association reunions would surely recognize each other. What of the others, though? Would we pass them by in the lobby, confusing them with ordinary hotel guests? Not unlike anticipated "reunion day" in heaven, we were soon to discover a shared quality of eagerness that magnetically drew us together. Not only had we been classmates with Mt. Carmel as our common denominator, we were brothers and sisters in Christ with an intentionality about finding our siblings in this great family of God. One could not mistake His glow as we searched faces and found that responsive radiance. What a reuniting of classmates right there in the lobby before our formal reunion dinner ever began! Just for the record, I take the liberty to confess that many of us were not a consistently spiritual body of students during our high school days. Had Jesus been choosing His disciples from among our constituency, I fear that the group would have been populated with a plethora of Peters. We seemed to possess much more enthusiasm than evangelism. Many of us experienced a spiritual roller coaster of ups and downs before finally settling on the Rock, Christ Jesus. Like Cephas, the small-case rock, denial and devastation dogged our repeated decisions to blend with the crowd, rather than to embrace the discipline of total devotion to Christ. Still, to each of us He offered yet another opportunity to confirm our love for Him. Perhaps not at a beachside breakfast, (John 21: 1-17), but in a similar personal encounter, Jesus has called us into an "agape" relationship of love with Himself. Impetuous Peters at heart, we responded, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you (with brotherly love)." Again, Jesus urged us to that higher level of divine love, only to hear us respond a second time with brotherly love. By Jesus' third, (or was it the thirtieth?) attempt, to woo and restore our sanguine souls, He altered his question to meet us right where we were. In the original Greek, He finally asked if we truly loved Him, not with "agape," but with brotherly love. Condescending to stoop to our level, He chose to accept us unconditionally at this lesser love relationship, only to radically reproduce Himself in us. (Now that's what we call an "EXTREME MAKE-OVER.") Not unlike Peter on the day of Pentecost, we now have found that subsequent experience of divine love demonstrated in Spirit-filled, Spirit-led victorious living. Through these subsequent years since each one's personal Pentecost, God has chosen to use our class to "feed His lambs and sheep." Collectively, the class of '65 has ministered at home and abroad through building, preaching, comforting, teaching, nursing, writing, selling, creating, homemaking, caregiving, doctoring, music making, farming, counseling and military defending. All of this we learned after our frenzied recognition in the lobby and delightful fellowship over dinner as, one by one, each divulged his/her individual journey since Mt. Carmel days. Mingled among the memories were both laughter and tears. We concluded our evening together in Lexington by asking the minister husband of one classmate to pray God's benediction upon our lives and ministries. Then, we joined hands around the banquet room and sang, as we had learned to do at Mt. Carmel, "Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love." Yes, this fortieth reunion fellowship had been fabulous, even with only one-third of our class present. All this served to whet our appetites for the following day on Mt. Carmel campus when many of us joined former students from decades before and since our class. If Jesus tarries until 2010, we anticipate another feast of frenzied fellowship with many more of our class members present for our forty-fifth reunion. And, if He doesn't tarry? Classmates, I'll meet you in heaven, with Peter, around the throne of God. |
