I listened to Stephen Davey’s sermon series on Ruth and Boaz a few days ago. One of the topics he brought up during the series was being still. He used several verses to support this, but most well known of these is Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.” I think it’s those times when God shows up. I’ve never heard God speak, but I’ve seen him show up. That happened today, which also happens to be James’ birthday. James would be 29 today. I got in my car this morning, and as I began to back out, I noticed Amazing Grace playing on the radio. It was an instrumental rendition on bagpipes. As it came to a close, Chris Tomlin’s version of Amazing Grace began to play. I wouldn’t think much of that except that we were speaking tonight in Moultrie and sharing James’ story. One of the stories involved Chris Tomlin. As the song concluded, Terry Tidwell began to share the story of Renee Napier. She said Renee had faced the unfathomable tragedy of losing a child. The fact Terry mentioned a story involving the loss of child on James’ birthday seemed more than coincidence to me. While Renee’s story and ours are different, they’re the same. The loss of a child is a daily loss and it changes you, but you get to choose how you handle that loss. Later this morning, a friend asked if he could share a piece of James’ story in an event tomorrow. He had no idea today was James’ birthday. “Be still and know that I am God.”
We’ve had so much happen over these past four months, and I’ve wondered how to weave it together. “Be still” provided that opportunity.. Not so much the verse, but just how God continues to orchestrate events around James and around his story. We were blessed to attend Malcolm Mitchell’s Share the Magic Foundation event in February. It was such a wonderful time, but better still were the stories that came from the evening. This started a weekend of so many memories of James. We visited with Jay and Kiersten Rome that night and Kiersten shared a piece of James’ story with some of her friends there that night. We sat at a table with a couple we shared mutual friends with from Watkinsville, where James was born. Of course, we visited with Malcolm. We were fortunate to briefly visit with Coach Mark Richt earlier in the evening. We introduced ourselves and then told him, “We’re James Eunice’s parents.” He replied, “Well then, we need to hug.”
We headed over to Watkinsville the next morning. Our old church, Briarwood Baptist, was honoring Reverend Dan Fuller or better known as Preacher Dan, a wonderful man of God. He had been our pastor when we lived there. We re-connected with so many friends that day, without ever leaving the parking lot. We were the first ones there, and the last to leave two hours later.
Tammy left afterwards to go home with a friend while I ran over to Athens to pick up some items from Trader Joe’s. As I waked down one of the last aisles of the store, I thought I recognized someone, and said with a questioning tone, “Rance?”
He turned around and I saw it was Rance Gillespie, James’ football coach during his senior year. Rance and his wife, Claudette, were in town from Lake Hartwell visiting their daughter Kennedy, who was there in nursing school. We all talked together for several minutes to get caught up before I left to go pick up Tammy. Oh, and my receipt was $22.30.
As I left the parking lot, the song “Thy Will” by Hillary Scott began to play. I heard the words
“I know you hear me,
I know you see me, Lord.
Your plans are for me
Good news you have in store
So, thy will be done.”
And I thought back to all that happened that weekend with the encounters with people involved on both ends of James’ life. Preacher Dan had delayed baby dedication until after James was born so James could be a part of baby dedication at our church. So many of the friends we re-connected with that day visited James as a newborn. Jay and Malcolm were good friends and teammates of James and are so very special to us. Coach Richt will always be a hero to us for all he did to honor James. And Rance and Claudette remain good friends to us. Without Rance, I’m not sure we have the football portion of James’ story and James’ encounter with Coach Richt. Of course, we’ll never forget Rance leading James’ teammates into the church for James’ service as honorary pallbearers or Jay and Malcolm presenting us with James’ jersey from UGA and the note from Coach Richt.
And, with that as a backdrop, here we are on James’ 29th birthday with everything that happened from this morning. But that’s not all for the day. We drove to Moultrie tonight to share James’ story with a group of about 50 young people. They opened the service by singing “The Goodness of God” and the words
And all my life You have been faithful
And all my life You have been so, so good
These are the same words that were playing as we pulled into the Briarwood Baptist Church parking lot that February weekend. “Be still and know that I am God.” We shared stories tonight about so many of the people from that weekend who are part of this ongoing tapestry. But mostly, we shared about James and the goodness of God and his amazing grace.
Through many dangers, toils, and snares
I have already come
'Tis grace that brought me safe thus far
And grace will lead me home
We shared tonight that James’ goal in life was to make a difference in the lives of other people. Happy birthday James. I think you did that tonight. I know you’ve made a difference in my life. I love you and I miss you.
All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson