I Know The Man

I KnowThe Man

      That is the man. You may not recognize him after all these years but he has not changed at all to me. I still see the same man who when I was only 3 or 4 would load a potato into my bucket and tell me to take it in the house. He taught me that even at 3 I could work. He taught me that lady bugs were good for the garden and not to be caught or killed, potato bugs on the other hand you do what ever you wanted to with.  He was teaching me values, lessons of life. It is how I will always recognize him for he will always be teaching.  I knew him in his 40’s and I know him in his 90’s and the one constant, the one thing that never has changed is the unfailing, unquenchable drive to teach others.

    That is the man.  I can see him talking with me on top of a hill near our home in Arizona when I was 6.  He is teaching me the most important lesson of all, the lesson of eternal life. That morning in church I felt something I had never felt, a tug on my heart and awareness that I needed Jesus, but I didn’t know what it was.  I asked my Mom and my Dad and they told me to talk to Granddad.  We climbed the hill and set down on the ground, the man who had to teach and a young boy who needed to learn. He told me of Jesus though I already knew the story.  He told me of salvation and eternal life, then he told me that night if I felt the same tug on my heart to walk up the aisle, to accept Jesus and believe in Him.  I did feel, I did walk and I did believe. It was just like Granddad taught me.

    That is the man. He taught me Bible stories, and theological lessons.  He taught me garden techniques and bee keeping ways. He taught me to drive a car and to drive a nail.  He taught me to shoot a gun and shell peas. He couldn’t help himself, he had to teach and I had to learn. Of all the people I have ever sat under he has taught me the most in quantity and in quality.  He even taught me how to teach others.  I think of him every time I show someone something they never knew and I smile because I can’t help myself.  I have to teach.  I have to find someone like I was who has to learn because that is the man who filled me with lessons that can’t be kept.  They must be shared, they must be shown, they must be given to others.

    That is the man.  Years from now when he is gone, I will still see him. Oh, I may forget exactly how his voice sounded, or the way his eyes shone.  I may forget how he walked or how it felt to wrestle with him, but I will still recognize him.  I will see him in the lessons my children learned from me and the lessons they are now teaching to my grandchildren. I will never forget him because when my children teach my grandchildren and my grandchildren teach my great-grandchildren he will still be there. Yes, that is the man I’ll always see.
–D. Kris Minefee for Van George on the occasion of his 90th birthday.