"Computer dating is fine, if you’re a computer." - Rita Mae Brown

I really enjoyed this brief article on Pres. Reagan written by his daughter Patty. My favorite sentence is the one that includes:
"But most of all, I imagine spending time with him as a daughter — and his allowing the residue of my rebellious years and the hurt I caused him to blow away like dust."

Pam has Wednesdays off so this afternoon I had her go out to the garage and stand behind Gerta while I put her in reverse. Nothing happened. The back up lights don't work, but I'm not surprised. There's a switch on top of the transmission that trips when the linkage moves into the reverse position. Because that switch and the wires connected to it are exposed to the elements it's not unusual for them to fail. The wiring gets brittle and breaks or the switch gets gummed up with road grime and engine oil. Maybe some day I'll climb under there and check it all out but the lights are as much cosmetic as anything. A '67 should have the back up lights; whether they work is almost irrelevant. It's not like I need them to illuminate the driveway as I back out.

I have a nasty head cold and once again I’m convinced decongestants are a scam. They don’t work at all.

We only made it into the low 40’s today, thirty degrees below the normal for this time of year. The wind is blowing at 20 mph with gusts at 35 mph (= wind chill of 32), and the humidity is 9%, which means the dew point is -15 degrees. Yes, I know it pales in comparison to the mess that is weather in the Midwest, but it’s sure nasty by Phoenix standards. And it turns skin to parchment.

Emily and her daughter Eloise began attending Pathway just a few weeks after we began our church. They came at the invitation of Marcie, one of the pediatric PT’s who attends Pathway with her family. Eloise, who was probably about two years old at the time, was one of Marcie’s patients. Eloise had multiple birth defects that severely limited her physically and mentally, but we all fell in love with mother and daughter. The word sweet applies perfectly. Later, JR, Emily’s husband who is in the Air Force, got transferred and Emily & Eloise moved with him - out of the area but not out of our hearts.

In the last couple of weeks we learned through our connections on Facebook that Eloise was very sick and went through a series of very significant surgeries, sometimes on successive days. The people of Pathway have been praying for the family even though most have never met them, having started at Pathway after JR, Emily and Eloise moved away.

We got word today that Eloise has died. The problems were just too big for her little body, now four years old, to fight off. Sweet Eloise can now walk, run, talk and play in the Savior’s presence, but the hole in her parents’ heart is huge. JR came to church a few times so we knew him, but not well. Emily, however, clearly doted on Eloise. You never saw a mother who loved her daughter more, cared for her more attentively or beamed with such pride at even the smallest developmental improvement. I was humbled and instructed by the purity of a mother’s love for a daughter whose disabilities and limitations were irrelevant to that devotion.

I’ve been asked to do the service, which will probably be in a week or so. They’re still working out the details, which I imagine are more complicated because he’s in the military and they live near his current base, not near family. Services for children present special challenges and this one is no exception. Emily’s message to me earlier today demonstrated that their grief at the death of their daughter is not the least bit mitigated by her limitations in life. That’s a testament to their love for Eloise.

Not coincidentally (!) my sermon this Sunday is the fifth in our series titled “Credo,” - I believe. We’re focusing on what we believe about man, including that we are created in the image of God. After looking at key passages we’ll explore some of the implications of Imago Dei. Does the image of God come in measure? Was it more present in Einstein than in Eloise? Does a Super Bowl athlete have Imago Dei to a greater extent than a little girl who couldn’t sit without support? If not, why not? And if not, what does that say about our care and concern for “the least of these?”