THE DAY MY BROTHER DIED

A TRUE STORY OF GOD’S COMFORT

Some people think faith in God will rescue you from every trial, discomfort and problem. God’s promise is to be with us in the fiery furnace.

GOD OF ALL COMFORT
2Co 1:3 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;

WE CAN COMFORT OTHERS WITH THE COMFORT WE RECIEVED
2Co 1:4 Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

This is my hope. That you will be comforted by the comfort I have received.

This is a picture of my brother Roger

This is a sad story with a good ending. Please continue to read as it is not a complete downer.

My parents and I adopted my brother when he was 8 years old. He was living on the streets and fending for himself, sleeping in cars and scrounging for food in garbage cans. He was a wild boy! In the first year he beat up every baby sitter my parents left us with. 18 year old baby sitters, no match. Not even close! He was athletic and naturally coordinated. He could do perfect cartwheels, non stop for as far as there was room. He could stand flat footed and do a flip forwards or backwards and land on his feet. We were not wealthy, but we always had food on the table and mom was a great cook. Roger would eat every meal like it was his last.
So fast and athletic, in 9th grade he fought 3 seniors in high school and won!

Adoption is what God does with us! We are on our own, dead in our trespasses and sins and He adopts us into His family. He then calls us sons and daughters. No stepson, but sons. God loves us as much as He loves Jesus! He makes no distinction. We are His offspring!

Rom 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

Just like that, with all the faults, bad habits, we took him in and made no difference if he was our flesh and blood or not. He was my brother as much as any brother is. My parents called him son, just as much as I was his son. This is how the family of God works! It doesn’t matter what skin color, nationality, language...what matters are you born into the kingdom through Jesus Christ? If so, through adoption, we are family!

My brother was 8 and I was 7! We joined the wrestling team together. We grew over the years to be best friends. He was my hunting and fishing buddy! It was when he was the happiest! Fishing or hunting! And he loved to be with his family. He would go into the woods during hunting season and you would not see him until way after dark. When we went to the ocean to fish, he would fish all day and all night.

Roger really had a difficult time as he was dislexic and not the most academic. Children are sometimes very cruel when it comes to other kids that are not exactly fitting the mold.

So to the main part of my story. When my brother was 29 years old, his life on earth was cut short. He was working, putting in a storm drain for a girl’s home. The concrete pipe has a male and female end that has to be fitted together. My brother was in the ditch and the contractor failed to install the required digging box or to angle back the sides of the ditch to avoid the ditch from caving in. They were lowering the 3 foot diameter concrete pipe with a trackhoe and a chain.

My brother was at the deep end and another younger boy at the shallow end. It had been raining a good amount the entire week. Conditions were not good and it happened! The ground caved in and completely buried my brother. The younger boy was buried up to his waist. The rescue squad arrived within a few minutes and stopped my brother’s coworkers from trying to save him.

Sad is too weak of a word for this! Tragic!

Let’s go back in time about two years before this. My brother was living by himself in a cabin deep in the woods. It was winter and the cabin had no electricity, no running water. He heated the place with wood and had oil lanterns for light. He had a whole dear hanging in an out building for food. I went to stay with him for about two weeks. The room where the only wood stove was, was very small. We would sit in this room and chat until the wee hours of the morning. Then when we went back to our rooms, you could see your breath and I was sleeping between two ticks. You know, the old mattress filled with goose down. I had a mattress beneath me and one mattress for a blanket. When I woke up in the morning, sometimes my hair would be frozen to my pillow. Crazy!

During our late night talks, one night my brother repented of his sins and believed on Jesus and His finished Work on the cross and became a daily follower of Christ! Hallelujah! What a Faithful God!

So back to the accident! It took over 5 hours to get the young boy out and about 8 hours to get my brother out. My sister amd I were watching the news and saw where the accident was and knew it was where our brother was working. We were at the scene 7 out of the 8 hours. I never bothered my brother while he was working, but the day before the accident, he was running a jackhammer close to the road. I stopped, hugged him, kissed him in the cheek and told him I loved Him! This is how gracious the God of Abraham, Jacob, Isaac and Daddy William is!

So they get him out of the ambulance! They clean as much mud off of him as possible and I was allowed to go in to see him. Ever since I have been born again, I have always felt and still know that one day God will use me to raise the dead. Why not my brother? So I go into the ambulance. He is laying there face up. I walk over next to him! I put my hand on his chest....then it happened! I have heard God’s audible voice a few times and this was one of the occurances.

The very moment when I put my hand on his chest, I could hear a voice in my heart and with my ears! I snapped my gaze in the direction of the voice to my right and I saw nothing!
What God said to me has brought me so much comfort over the years. Did I cry? Yes! I still cry sometimes as I miss my brother and my friend!
What did God say? He said, “HE IS HERE WITH ME!” My brother was with God! Hallelujah!

2Co 5:8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

The God of ALL comfort! He is the only ONE that can really truly give us comfort and make something beautiful out of the mess of our life.

God bless!
Daddy William