'Til We Meet Again...

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16 (KJV)

"So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable." 1 Corinthians 15:42 (ESV)

My only sibling passed away last Saturday at 48 after a long battle with breast cancer. I thought I would recount here the fond memories I have of our childhood together.

My favorite memories were always when we built cities or buildings together. Sometimes we would go out to the garage and take every cushion and blanket we could find and build what to us was a vast city with pathways, twists, turns and many, many rooms. We called these structures our forts. On another occasion we dug a huge hole in the ground. We gave it a squareish shape and made sure to incorporate a shelf in the dirt wall and a small seat. We then put a square table over it and draped a large blanket over that. My father was going to build a deck there in the future so we were allowed to do it. It was tiny, probably not more than 4 feet by 4 feet, but to us it seemed like a mansion. We brought out toy pots and pans and dishes (mine, of course) and made meals and pretended we were orphans living on our own in the wilderness.

Our best project was our Matchbox Car city. We had Lego buildings and dirt roads which we carved out of the ground. My brother had a wooden gas station that my father made him so we would drive the small cars down the dirt roads and pull into the gas station to fill up with gas. We also had Lego homes with Lego trees in the front yards. We had so much fun in the worlds we created.

I remember when I was in 6th grade and he was in 3rd, bell bottom pants had become popular. He had never had a pair and he really wasn't interested in turning in his Sears Toughskin pants in solid colors. I finally talked him into getting a couple of pairs of vertically striped bell bottom pants. I honestly don't think he wore them right away and probably not very often even then. He later developed his own sense of style which included a silky tan Mickey Mouse dress shirt as well as other various picture shirts of the 70's! Do you remember those?

When he was older, he built real forts complete with electricity and carpet at each of our respective houses. I was not allowed to enter any of those. They were for boys only.

My brother had his own language. "Sebet" and "Gabah" were his favorite made up words in his made up language. It was a complete language as far as I could tell. Of course, none of us understand a word. I think one of his friends did though...

In 1978, I became a Christian, started attending church, and coaching him on what posters he should take down off of his wall. It took quite a few years but he originally accepted Christ when we were at an Oden Fong concert in 1981 at the church I was attending. After that, he cleaned his wall off of the posters that he had displayed. This church was the one where I met my husband and the first Singles event that I remember going to was a bonfire on the beach in Santa Cruz. My brother was with me and my husband spent most of the evening getting to know my brother! I don't actually know what they were talking about but it was only a short while later that my husband and I began dating. I guess, at least, he didn't scare him off...

Rick and Kim traveled a lot during their early years of marriage and Rick also traveled a lot for work. He visited many countries and took amazing photos. He had an excellent eye for photography. But his true joy came when his sons were born. There never were 2 more well documented children in the history of mankind. He loved his boys dearly and that will never change.

Good bye, Baby Brother...You will be missed but never forgotten. And at the rate that time goes by, we will all be together again soon, meeting again at Jesus' feet.

"When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory.'" 1 Corinthians 15:54 (NIV)

"Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift." 2 Corinthians 9:15 (KJV)