My Uncle Harland, my dad’s older brother, passed away this week. And I’ve been thinking about what I remember most about him. I remember him being funny and laughing a lot. I remember him always working. I remember him loving kids and not minding if there was a bunch of us around. I remember him stopping by grandma and grandpa’s house every morning for a cup of coffee. And he would take the time to play a game of Chinese checkers with me and my sister if we happened to be there too. I remember him working hard all day to help my family move to our farm. I remember him bringing grandma flowers from her home on the mountain when she was in the nursing home. He took special care to make sure the flowers made it there in good shape.

I remember one time when my parents asked Uncle Harland to take me and my sister to our grandparents’ house in the country. It was in the summer and we were going to spend a week with grandma and grandpa. We packed our bags and loaded up in Uncle Harland’s old farm truck. And there was a big hole in the passenger side floorboard! My uncle laughed and said, “Hold your feet up girls; you don’t want to lose your shoes!!” My sister and I were terrified as we headed down the road and watched the pavement go by thru that hole in the floor! We held on tightly to each other, to our stuff and worried all the way there that we were going to lose our shoes!!

Another time Uncle Harland promised to take us swimming if we would help him with his pigs. He had a sow that got down in the woods and had a very large litter of piglets. We had to carry piglets in buckets up a steep hill. We were just little girls and could only carry a piglet or two at a time. So, what I remember is a very hot, sweaty afternoon and carrying bucket after bucket of little pigs up a steep hill. We got to do very little swimming that day because of a rogue sow and buckets full of squealing baby pigs!!

The Word of God is full of what my son and I call “gold nuggets”. You can read passages in the Bible again and again and not see these nuggets until God is ready to reveal them to you. Uncle Harland shared one of these nuggets with us not too long before he passed away. He said that Stephen saw Jesus standing on the right hand of God before he was stoned. Jesus knew what the angry crowd was going to do to Stephen. And Jesus wasn’t sitting. He stood up because He was concerned about Stephen and because He cared about what was happening.

The Lord does care for us. He cares when we are hurting. And He cares when we are sad. Jesus will stand up for you, are you ready to stand up for Him too?

Acts 7:55-60 But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, 56 And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. 57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, 58 And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul. 59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. 60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.