Back in the saddle

During a meeting with the commander of my National Guard unit he mentioned to me that he was not sure how me taking time off for a few months would do anything but make me stay away. I did not think of a good comeback until this morning. Most people use their vacation time form their civilian careers and when the time is up they return to work. Mosly it's because they need tha paycheck, but also because it is something they enjoy (sometimes anyway). I am bummed. I missed my Grandfather's funeral! I live over 50 miles from Arlinton National Cemetery and I set out with 2 1/2 hours to spare. I know about traffic in Washington DC - I've lived in the area for over twenty years - and I still missed it. I'm not talking about showing up a little late, or "fashionably" late. I'm talking walking up as the Air Force band and Honor Guard bus is pulling away and the only one standing there is the represenitive for the cemetery. I'm talking that I did not say more than two sentences to the man before the 'grave digger' showed up to do his work. *sigh* :( I spent a few minutes looking around and talking to my Grandfather - not that I actually believe we can commune directly with those who have passed on, but I did anyway. Then on the way back to my car I prayed to the Lord and asked Him, that if my Grandfather was there with Him, to please pass along my greetings - and that I am looking forward to seeing him again. I did get to spend the afternoon with several Aunts and Uncles though. They gave me a copy of a picture of him when he was stationed in Panama, a copy of his discharge papers, and a certificate of his being granted (?) a 32nd degree Mason. I am not too knowledgable of the Masons. They also gave me his grey felt fedora. It's a nice looking hat, and the family was quite pleased to see me in it. My Grandfather played a big part in my finally receiving the Lord in August of 1989. I remember receiving Christmas cards from him - all of them were witnessing and evangelical. Now, he is not known by his own children for being a compassionate man. A man who basically abused his daughters. I do not have details, or evidences, but I would say that something went on. In the later years of his life he seemed to be trying to atone for his earlier years. Giving most of his monthly budget away - witness to all of his grandchildren. I never really got to know him - not for a lack of trying on my part - but I wished I had. Updates: None Verse for today: Hebrews 9 : 24-28, ESV For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.