Blood Brothers

But the stars are burning bright like some mystery uncovered,

I’ll keep moving through the dark with you in my heart

My blood brother.

Bruce Springsteen

     He is only eighteen months younger than I am, so if my math is right….he should turn fifty this March. Now that is when you know that time is flying by. The, “baby” brother will soon be a half a century old. That’s just nuts.

     It may sound weird but he truly was a cute kid. I saw how his baby blues could turn heads with just a little grin. It also got him into trouble more than once. His laugh has always been infectious and many have been the times that we have laughed till the tears came flowing down.

     When he was a young kid he would do anything to please me just to be with me. Seriously, he really did do just about anything. He ate a June Bugs bottom end and jumped out of the back of a moving truck because I told him he would be like John Wayne. I still see him as a young boy jumping over a ravine with our bicycle off a shaky ramp. While flying through the air, he was smiling, that was until the front tire fell off in mid-flight. Then it became just a face of well, SHOCK.

     We shared the same bedroom for years. Late at night we would talk and sing to the songs that were on the radio. Our taste changed from old country standards to rock. We would talk about our dreams of what we wanted to be and many times watch the darkness break into an early morning dawn.

     As the years went on I wish that I could say that it was always like the above. It did not. Before I came to know the Lord I mostly made his life into a living Hell. He would often become the brunt of my anger and sheer sinfulness in so many areas. One of the things that stood out to me the most was how that in the midst of one of these fights he refused to hit me back. I still remember asking him, “Why won’t you hit me?” He simply stated back to me, “Because I love you.” Believe it or not that was one of the things that would bring me to my knees on seeing my sinfulness and my need for Christ. Even though he was not saved at this time through this incident it would make me question my relationship with Christ.

     Going to Bible College just shortly after I got saved my heart became burdened for Him to come to know Christ as well. I didn’t mean to but in my misguided zeal at times I would play the part of the Holy Spirit. I wanted his life to change but that was impossible for He needed Jesus to be the author of his faith.

     Like me, after following the siren’s songs of sin and death he would finally come to know Christ. It has become one of my greatest joys to see both him and his wife grow in the Lord through the years. He has not only been a brother but a friend.

     Now don’t get me wrong we often are far from getting it right. You only need to ask our wives Renita and Julie. They are quite often the true sufferers of our foolishness. Yet, to see what the Lord has brought him out of and where he is now is one of my greatest blessings.

     He has more than a million times over sacrificed himself for me. He has helped me with two of my major moves from one part of the United States to another part. He has loaded up the vans, drove through snow storms, helped with the insane amount of driving and quite often at his own expenses. He and his wife have given of their time and resources to help us in ways that I could never repay. He is not only my physical brother but a true blood brother.

     This is how it should be among us as believers as well. We should be looking out for each other when, “there ain’t much cover.”  (Thanks, Bruce for allowing me to use the word ain’t in one of my blogs. Wait a second, I got to use it now twice.) We are a family that is to be known by their love for one another.

     One of my favorite memories was about three or four years ago when my brother and his wife Renita came up for a visit. The family had all went to bed except for Bill and me. It was a beautiful night in Louisiana and we went outside and sat on the porch. We talked, laughed, dreamed and looked at the stars just like we did when we were kids.