A beautiful place
June 24, 2008 (Tuesday)
I am in Rockport today to conduct the funeral of David Theodore, a man I’ve known since he was 15 months old. I’ve known him literally all his life. All the members of his family are very close to my heart, and I share their grief today.
As I drove into town, across the causeway, I looked for signs of a recent major traffic accident, involving several cars, from which some were sent to the hospital with severe injuries, and in which an elderly man died. I think I saw the place where it happened. Then as I looked off to either side, I was almost overwhelmed with the beautiful sight of the bays. The weather in Rockport is sometimes just right to accent the beauty of the water. It was so yesterday as I looked around me, traveling across the two-mile expanse.
I was driving over reefs where the Karankawa Indians fished with spears, and picked up oysters at will for a little snack now and then. I drove near the site of the home of Empresario Powers, who sailed into this area and enlisted settlers to come and join him in settling this part of Mexico. I drove through Lamar, a townsite named for Mirabeau B. Lamar, President of the Republic of Texas, who visited as a guest of honor when the town was established.
As I looked at the calm blue water, I thought of August 3, 1970, when the winds in the area around here gusted as much as 200 miles per hour, and blew down many buildings. Even that terrible storm was not as powerful as the one which blew in 1919, killing many people from here to Corpus Christi and beyond. The bays are like a sleeping beauty who, when her rest is disturbed, can turn into a wicked witch.
This is a beautiful place. I’m glad this has been my home for 43 years and 8 months. I love this place. I’m thankful for the privilege I had of serving the First Baptist Church with its loving members. I love Houston, too, (where I was born and raised) and the wonderful, sweet and kind people of the Timbergrove Baptist Church. Like the old song said, I live in two different worlds. What they have in common is great people.