February 13 – “A Day to Honor”

We had quite a full day of honoring yesterday.  Church, of course, started everything off.  Can’t beat starting off any day honoring and appreciating Jesus.  We had a pretty good crowd, and I’m pretty sure that everyone had been to a service at some time before.  That’s kind of unusual at Seaside lately.  We tend to have quite the entourage of visitors from all over the place.  The fact that so many locals are attending is a real boost in the arm.

Yesterday afternoon I officiated at the funeral of a gentleman who had been attending Seaside when I first came back to Galveston 21 plus years ago.  In fact I think he might have been on the pastor search committee that asked me to be Seaside’s pastor.  He had quite a career in law enforcement.  He was a past chief of police in Jamaica Beach and then became a sheriff’s deputy.  He became very close friends with the pastor who started Seaside, and was eventually baptized by him.  That pastor now lives in Delaware and has had some health problems, so he wasn’t able to make the journey to Galveston for the funeral.  He did send some words of remembrance that one of the family members read.  There was quite a crowd present to honor Clyde, too.  Fully a fourth of the room was reserved just for masons, who did the closing part of the service.  Probably the most interesting sight in the room, though, was the sea of fifty or so tie-dyed t-shirts worn by family and close friends.  I was even honored to be wearing one.  Clyde loved the tie-dyed look, and he wore a tie-dyed shirt pretty much every day he wasn’t in uniform.  It was quite the tribute. 

I have to say my favorite story shared about Clyde came from the woman who told about the time she was new to the area and drove through Jamaica Beach on her way to her new home in Bay Harbor.  She dutifully slowed down in Jamaica Beach, but suddenly noticed the flashing lights behind her anyway.  She pulled over, and Clyde approached her vehicle.  She asked if she was speeding, and he replied that she was not.  She asked if she was weaving or in any way driving erratically.  Again, he said she was not.  Quite confused now, she asked why, then, had she been pulled over.  Clyde replied, “You were the first car I have seen drive through here in four hours.  I was just bored.”  They had a cup of coffee together at the 7-11 and became friends from then on. 

From that and many other stories I heard, it sounded like Clyde had touched a lot of lives in a very positive way.  I know his family will hold onto the precious memories shared with them.

Colossians 4:6 says, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

Father walk with the Batten family as they deal with grief and loss.  And meanwhile … welcome Clyde into your presence.  Amen.