It is difficult to know where to make this post. It is all about the joyfully poignant service we had this afternoon for Deb Smith. It was a real family reunion, not unlike many weddings and funerals, because these rituals provide valuable time for old but busy friends to get together. The hyper speed of life passes much too quickly so time is needed to remember the good times after too many years of love from a distance.
We met at the old FCC Church building on the west side of Cincinnati. It has now merged with another congregation and is called, appropriately, "New Hope". I suppose the old hope had died. It was a matured version of the hippies we had loved so well and so fleetingly back in the sixties and seventies. Fewer beards and many more gray hairs in the ones that were there.
But a lot of people turned out to honor Deb and Toms Smith for their love, care and evangelistic fervor that brought many of them to a faith that still thrives among daunting marriages and rearing kids as well as fighting off various diseases and moving through the Mid Life Crises that seem to appear out of no where.
I wish I had taken a camera. I would love to show you all the photos of some of the most beautiful people I ever knew. But my task of the day, Master of Ceremonies and enforcer of the time constraints, would have prevented me from taking any pictures, but I still like to think about having pictures to remind me of our old friends.
We celebrated the short life of Deb Smith, a woman admired by all and sought for counsel by any who knew her. Tom was "The Official Pastor" of the Christian Student Fellowship but Deb, the very young Deb, provided so much love and concern for all those lonely students who came to U.C. for an education that they remembered her for decades for her listening, wisdom and acceptance.
More on the state of the Jesus People next time.
Take a look at http://lovingdebsmith.blogspot.com
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