If I could assign the word “caring” to but one person I have ever known, I would assign it to my friend, Mac Works. Mac dedicated his whole life to caring and care giving both in his vocation and in his daily life. He fulfilled God’s purpose for his life in the depth of care that he gave to every life he touched. I am blessed to have been one of those lives and it is here that I give thanks for him.

            I give thanks for Mac in many ways, but I will miss him most as a companion in my spiritual walk. I think Mac and I enjoyed a very special relationship that way. We all know that he was a very private man and his relationship with God was perhaps the most private of all.

We began our walk together almost ten years ago in a Bible study, and the ensuing journey brought us both nearer to each other and nearer to God with each step. He once talked to me about people that don’t believe in God. He looked about him waving at the majesty of the world around us and the awe of its complexity, and he said, “All they need to do is look around.”

As he grew deeper spiritually I was challenged to grow deeper also, but our walks became stronger and closer as he faced and we faced together the realities of his final illness. Weekly Reflections often served as subjects of our conversations—and it was Mac that always brought them up. I could feel him finding God’s peace more and more everyday. When I would call, he would always want to talk about that. The last time we were together, he told me about reading one of the Reflections to his family. As we discussed a Bible passage associated with it, Mac said, “People say that the Bible is too long, but I think it is not long enough,” suggesting how deep the Bible is and how helpful it might be if it was in greater detail and with more explanation.

As his time drew closer to the end, he also began to share his spiritual life with his family. While taking a walk with one of his children, he revealed that he prayed to Jesus and he felt instant peace. And God must have had revealed the gates of his new home opening to him when he spoke of heaven and preparing a place for Dee Dee when she gets there.

Some seasons of life are rich with blessing as was my season with Mac. It will forever live in my memory. But I know that he has been born into a new place where all things are new—there is no hurt nor pain, nor hunger nor thirst. There is no war, no terror, no evil—only peace and love that endures forever for it is God’s home too.   

And when we arrive there, Mac will be there to greet us.