| Vol. 5.09 • November 2009 • The Newsletter of Eagle Christian Ministries |
Ken Price © November 5, 2009
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 It was a busy day for me but the first day of school is always busy. No one seems to know where they are going. I had finished my first and only class for the day and was preparing to navigate the college parking lot. The school traffic was down to a crawl with students coming and going all at the same time. While sitting in the congestion my cell phone rang. It was a first year student who was calling from the main campus inviting me to lunch. I could tell something was wrong by the sound of his voice. He seemed to be a bit down from his normal upbeat personality. Taking time out to meet with someone for lunch on the first day of school was also a bit unusual.
It took about thirty minutes to drive to the other campus where we meet at a local sandwich shop. Instead of eating we both ordered a drink and set down to talk. The past year he had taken a round on the party scene and it had beaten him up pretty good. He had recently broken up with his girlfriend and been having some trouble at home. I did not know what today’s tragedy was about but clearly he was distraught. I waited for him to start talking. Finally, he asked if I remembered his Dalmatian, Oreo. We had in fact talked about his dog many times as I often use pet behavior to make some point or give some insight into our own. His eyes began to glass over with tears and we grabbed our drinks and headed towards my car. Oreo was dead. He had to be put down as his medical conditions had worsened and he was in constant pain. Oreo had been with him since childhood. I listened as he recalled stories of the time they had shared together. Oreo had been a good friend and companion through the past year of upheaval, always there, always happy to see him but now gone.
 My own thoughts began to take me back into my childhood where I resurrected a friend from my own past named Charley. It was 1965, I was nine years old and the family pet was a black standard Poodle named Charley. He was three at the time and had been named for the John Steinbeck’s best seller Travels With Charley. Charley was the best friend I’d ever had. Each day after school, when the bus would drop us off, Charley was waiting just inside the fence pacing, wagging his tail and jumping up and down as though he lived for this moment and I must admit it was one of my favorite times also. Somehow this shaggy and often smelly creature had wormed his way into my young heart and I had found a friend for life.
My fond thoughts of Charley carried me back to a midsummer day. My dad was firing up the barbeque grill and my brother (2 years older) and I were walking up to the country store which was no more than five blocks away. We left the yard through a back gate and hurried to get our soft drinks. It was on the way back I saw Charley running to catch up with us. He had also gone through the back gate which we had left open.
Standing on the opposite side of a busy country road I yelled to try and stop Charley from crossing into the oncoming traffic; I remember the tires screeching and then the awful thud. The entire event played out in slow motion. As the car past without stopping, I yelled with the shrill sound of a nine year old. My poor father, like listening to a radio broad cast, could only hear the events but not see and he feared the worst. He jumped the fence and in moments arrived on the scene. While he found some relief that his boys were okay, his heart went out to me as I clutched Charley’s body and he place his arm around me to console my broken heart. In my young life I had never seen anything so horrible or felt such unbearable pain. My dad carried Charley back home and we loaded him in the car headed for the local vet but Charley was gone.
A few years later, at the very same intersection, my father and I were in an automobile accident. An oncoming truck slammed into our car in the driver’s side. I felt as though I was reliving the day all over again except this time it was not Charley on the way to the doctor it was my dad and I. We both recovered from the event with a few scrapes and bruises. These memories from so long ago, echoes from my past, allowed me to share in my friends loss and offer some comfort to his grief.
As I relayed the story of Charley to my grieving friend, he seemed to understand that he was no longer bearing his grief alone. I, in fact, was sharing in his sorrow and it occurred to me that my Travels With Charley did not end on that fateful day four decades ago. Charley left in me the memory of both his life and death which enabled me to offer some comfort.
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And why does God do this?
So that when others are troubled, needing our sympathy and encouragement, we can pass
on to them this same help and comfort God has given us. II Corinthians 1:3-7 Living Bible |
It is not always easy to
see what God is doing.
It is not always easy to
bear the load we are given.
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In time we will find that the
comfort He has given us
will shine for others in their
darkness.
© Ken Price November 5th, 2009
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