The Mayer Family

March 28, 2007

First off; Happy Birthday Mom! Sorry we missed you on the phone today and had to leave something on your answering machine. I hope we were sort of in-tune when we sang happy birthday. It’s difficult to do that on a pay phone, you know. Oh well, we got to talk for awhile yesterday since I thought yesterday was the 28th. You are a great mother and grandmother! We miss you so much! I wish so bad we could be there for your birthday. I know it is very difficult for you to let go of us and Evan and Ellie. You have been so gracious to us and your love language of giving, giving, and giving some more is greatly missed. You don’t know how much we’d love to run the kids over to you to let you baby sit them for a few hours. They miss it too!

Today I was “stuck” watching Evan and Ellie most of the day because Wendy was off looking for all kinds of kitchen stuff. Dishes, silverware, glasses, etc. Of course, if I would have had to go kitchen shopping, then I would have really been “stuck.” So, anyway, one of the books I have been wanting to read for a while is the book “Safely Home” by Randy Alcorn—which by the way, if you’ve never read anything from him, you really need to. I put his writings just a little below the Apostle Paul’s writings. He has such an incredible way of putting things in an eternal perspective. OK, so…Wendy has read this book a while back, and I think about every time I looked over at her when she was reading it, she was crying…hoo boy. So, today, I’m watching the kids out on the front courtyard of our building, and I think, OK, time to start reading Safely Home. Guess how far I got before I started bawling…ummm, well, I didn’t even get to the first chapter yet. It’s gonna be a long book! OK, so I open the book and on the very first page is a picture entitled Safely Home and was the picture Randy Alcorn used as an inspiration of this story. It shows a man who has just fallen on his knees before Jesus’ throne. He looks as though he has been beaten down and is tired and worn out. Off to his side are some broken chains/handcuffs, but in his hand on the floor is a crown. I think the thing that struck me is where Jesus is in this picture. I can’t wait until the day that I see Jesus. The thought of it is so incredibly exciting, but for some reason, when I have thought of that first encounter with Him in heaven, often I see myself embracing him as I’m kneeling, while he is still standing. In this picture, Jesus is off of his throne and also kneeling, holding this man’s head to his chest with a look of pain for this man’s suffering, yet with warmth, compassion and a tenderness that blows away the “eerie” Jesus that is depicted in so many of the Catholic churches paintings and sculptures of him here. For some reason, this picture just gripped me like very few have ever done before. There I sat bawling my eyes out on the front courtyard, hoping like everything one of our new neighbors wouldn’t come walking through. Hmmm…what a way to introduce myself: “Hola, me llamo es Kevin, y yo estoy muy loco (crazy). Thankfully, nobody came through before I gathered myself enough to turn the page. OK, so this page is some of his endorsements…ooh, look…Chuck Colson, Tim LaHaye, Steve Green…cool…OK, I’ve got myself together now…next page is the Dedication which is usually boring anyways. It says…

TO GRAHAM STAINES
Who left his home in Australia to serve lepers
In India for thirty-four years.

TO PHILIP STAINES (age ten) and TIMOTHY STAINES (age six)
Who at half past midnight on January 23, 1999,
As their father held his arms around them,
Were burned to death by a mob in India;
Murdered because of Whom they knew and served.

TO GLADYS STAINES,
Who continues to minister to lepers and who said to all India,
“I am not bitter or angry. I have one great desire: that each citizen
Of this country should establish a personal relationship with
Jesus Christ, who gave His life for their sins.”

TO ESTHER STAINES,
Graham and Gladys’s daughter (then age thirteen),
Who said, “I praise the Lord that He found my father
Worthy to die for Him.”

TO THE HUNDREDS OF MEN, WOMEN,
AND CHILDREN KILLED FOR CHRIST EACH DAY,
Ignored by the world but watched by the eyes of heaven—
Those of whom the world is not worthy.

OK…so now again I’m hoping like everything that nobody comes through again ‘cause my faucet is on wide-open again and it isn’t stopping for a while.

You know, it is one thing to be willing to die for Jesus, but wow, what a sacrifice to have your children make that sacrifice as well. Later, I showed the picture to Evan, and told him that someday the picture will be of me embracing Jesus…and hopefully him and mommy and Ellie too. When I read to him about these young boys dying for Jesus, he about started crying as well. While I’m willing to make that sacrifice for Jesus, I’m not sure if I’m willing to let Wendy and my children do the same. But then…when I look at that picture…

—Kevin