Thanksgiving with Jack, December 4, 2025

 “Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. ‘But not during the festival,’ they said, ‘or the people may riot.’ While He was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on His head. Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, ‘Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.’ And they rebuked her harshly.  ‘Leave her alone,’ said Jesus. ‘Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to Me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have Me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on My body beforehand to prepare for My burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

(Mark 14:1-10)

What is it like to be in the presence of greatness?

Thanksgiving with Jack.

  We were blessed with a wonderful morning on Wednesday, Thanksgiving Eve. Our devotion for our early morning men’s breakfast focused on the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:25-34,  where He commands all of us “do not worry about what you will eat or wear”. A difficult concept to consider when we first hear it and impossible to even consider without the help of the Holy Spirit. But included in His message are two other commands that are usually overlooked.

1) “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.”

2) “See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.”

   Afterwards, we shared about many of the simple things in life that God has given us and that we often overlook when we consider those things that we are grateful for. Awesome morning.

   The rest of our day was filled with opportunities to reach and provide the needs of others as acts of gratitude for the new lives that we have found in Christ Jesus. We went home with the knowledge that the next day, Thursday, Thanksgiving day we had invitations to share a meal with our brothers and sisters from the Sedro Woolley Community church family in the early afternoon and in the evening with Mike and Pam and their family at the home they invited us to live in and make our home.

   Early the next morning, we received a message from our granddaughter that her step-dad Jack, who has had serious health problems that last few months, at the same time she also had operations that were necessary for her own health, was put on hospice care the evening before. She was also the primary caregiver to her mother (Christy) during her cancer and hospice care before she went to be with the Lord and with her sister, Kylee, when she went to be with the Lord over a year ago. She has also became guardian for Kylee’s youngest daughter, Clara, plus caring for her 3 other children. (And anyone else that needs help.)

    During our morning devotion that morning and receiving Keira’s message that she would only be “fixing a small meal for anyone that wants to drop in from noon-one and then everyone can go do whatever else they have planned”, the Lord revealed to us that spending time with her and Jack would be God’s gift to me and the rest of the family would be blessed to fulfill our other opportunities. Over 25 years ago, Jack accompanied, our son, Shane, and some other men to a Promise Keeper’s event and they both accepted Jesus. Lot’s of ups and downs for all three of us since that time.

    When I arrived right after noon, Keira and her husband and the kids and a friend were there making pies and setting up a meal. They had checked with Jack, who lives in a home close to them in Marysville that Keira owns. He was under medication but would be coming over. Family members straggled in throughout the afternoon – kids, grandkids, great grandkids and friends. Frequent calls by each one to Jack to see if he needed a ride or if he had taken all the necessary precautions that hospice had given him. He has had a struggle with his faith since his wife, Christy, went to be with the Lord and then shortly after the loss of his daughter, Kylee.

    I would be remiss to not share that all our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren in the family, neither Linda or I have any biological connection with. Lot’s of cookies, laughter, photos, football games and playing with the children. Waiting for time for dinner and Jack’s arrival. About 4pm, Joseph yelled that Grandpa Jack had pulled up and everyone went out and helped him keep his balance and guided him to the lounge chair that set where his wife’s hospital bed had set the last few weeks of her hospice care and where she was laying when she went to be with the Lord. Even though he had some pain, he did his best and chatted with everyone and did his best to keep his sense of humor.

     Right after his arrival, I sat with him and thanked him for coming. He said, ‘I knew I had to, and I knew I had to drive.” The Holy Spirit immediately touched my heart and mind and said, “Jack is not saying this because he is proud or arrogant. He is saying it because he is being obedient.” The Lord showed me and Jack confirmed that he knew that whatever happened he was going to be ok.

     Then I knew that those few extra weeks the God allowed Christy to be with us before she was swept into the arms of her Father and reunited with her brother and other families that had already joined together in heaven were not because she “needed” that extra time – but because we needed it. If it were just between God and her, He would have immediately took her to receive those blessings of reunion with loved ones, with no pain, full of love and joy and absent of the body. The first few days in the hospital; terminal, no cure and hospice care, some of her friends said they had believed in God because Christy was there for them, but now one said as we stood at the foot of her bed in the hospital: “Now, I hate God!”

Then Christy told the hospital she was leaving and would finish hospice at home with her family. At first they refused to release her, but gave in when Keira opened her home. During those weeks, when she was awake she chatted and laughed and would say, “If I fall asleep, just wait I am taking a nap.” She even had a slumber party with the grandkids, and after those weeks she slipped into the Father’s arms while listening to music with Keira, his daughter, and Kamron, his son. But most importantly for me, during those weeks many of her friends and family that hated God came and said they no longer hated God and were beginning at least in a small way to feel the assurance of God’s love for Christy and for them.

    When I got ready to leave and before I prayed for him I reminded him that he was sitting in the lounge chair where Christy had come to give us all what we needed. We were all gathered with her questioning everything we did and every motive hoping to give her something that she needed. What she needed was to be obedient and give to each of us that were grieving what we really needed and that is the time with her that she chose to give us.

She could have given in to the self-pity and cranked up the morphine – after all, who would have blamed her? But she did not and neither did you Jack. You have accomplished more for your family tonight than all the rest of presents you have ever given them. You gave them your presence wrapped in the love of Jesus for your family and me. I love you and I am proud of you. Thank you for giving. 

To Jack,

“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” (Philippians 2:1-4)

Well done, Jack.

Good and faithful servant.

“You did what you could!”

    Jesus 

And now I understand in a deeper way why Jesus asked us to simply take a moment and:

 “Look at the birds of the air and see how the lilies of the field grow.