Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Sibling(s) (05/01/08)
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TITLE: Tale of Two Brothers | Previous Challenge Entry
By Neal Eckert
05/07/08 -
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At only fifteen months apart, the two brothers were inseparable. Throughout their childhood years, they engulfed themselves in activities that most boys, once they are men, look back on and remember with fondness. Some of their earliest memories together found them in the backyard sandbox constructing miniature towns that they equally shared the load in ruling. Other days, they were on opposite sides of a fierce battle of which they each led their imaginary armies, culminating in a duel between the brothers, with fallen sticks for swords. Later, there were memories of wading through forgotten streams and finding living and non-living treasures that ‘grown-ups’ had long since abandoned as cheap and trivial.
The two were inseparable, that is, until the teenage years came rushing down upon their heads with all of its fury. Life was no longer a one-dimensional playground. Danny and Matt now found they had very little in common. Danny’s free-time was taken up by reading books and involvement in a church youth program. For about a year, Matt was prodded, poked, and hassled to go to the weekly youth program with Danny but, after that, his parents no longer pushed the subject. They were just as tired of pressuring Matt as Matt was tired of being pressured.
The chasm between Danny and Matt split even further upon their graduation from high school. Soon after graduating, Matt was kicked out of the house and bounced around from job to job, and later, from bar to bar. The squandered years of Matt’s life passed by without any notice that everyone has a limited number of them. Danny remained involved in church even through his college years and eventually married.
By the time Danny had added three children to his family, Matt had already served various intermittent jail terms. Matt had a child to a woman he had no feelings for and consistently bemoaned the child-support payments. His girl grew up quickly, but he had only seen her twice by her eighth birthday and viewed her as a big mistake.
Tragedy struck for Matt one chilly autumn morning on his way to work. When Matt woke up that morning it had never crossed his mind that this would be his last day. As he made his way to work, the driver of a semi who had fallen asleep crossed the center line, colliding with Matt’s pickup. Matt was only thirty-seven. A handful of mourners filed into pay their respects without a comforting word to offer Matt’s parents. No one had taken the death harder than they had. What grieved them more than the ending of his life was the thought of his beginning of a new one somewhere else. It was too painful to wrap their minds around.
Four years later, Danny was stricken with inoperable cancer that lasted three agonizing months before Danny lost the battle. For Danny and Matt’s parents, their worst nightmare was now reality. Their only two children had died before they did. A crowd of people waited in a line on a cold and rainy April day to say goodbye. Nearly everyone had a comforting word to offer his parents. Through sincere tears, Danny’s music teacher whispered, “He is in a much better place now.”
What human eyes could not see was that less than two days before his death, Matt had reached a breaking point. In the quietness of his bedroom he asked Jesus to forgive him and to save him. He already knew what he had to do and so he did it. No one was with him. He was excited about his new relationship with Jesus and felt the weight of his sin fall off his shoulders. That tragic autumn morning was the beginning of eternal bliss for Matt as Jesus excitedly and lovingly welcomed him home. All was forgiven!
Anyone who knew Danny had liked him. He was a ‘family man’, agreeable, and easy to get along with. He had spent nearly his entire life in church involvement, among other things. In fact, at the time of his death, Danny was serving as a deacon. What others failed to see was that although Danny was faithful with church attendance and involvement, he had never made a decision to follow Jesus. He had spent his life learning about God but had never truly known Him. Upon death, he was met with the prospect of something far more agonizing and hopeless than inoperable cancer.
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