Thursday, October 30, 2025
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Cedar chest
Brothers and sisters,
If God is for us, who can be against us?
Through the rain, which lasted all day and seemed to be following me down the interstates through Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas, here I am at the Super 8 in Arkadelphia, home town of celebrity former Baptist Bible study leader (now Anglican) Beth Moore and one of the gateways to Hot Springs National Park.
A few years ago I spent the day at the national park, set in thousands of acres of Arkansas pines, mountains, lakes and of course, hot springs. Central Ave. runs through the center of the town of Hot Springs and the park, so I walked a mile or two, up to the classic, famous Arlington Hotel and back.
On the east side of the street a few outdoor hot springs beckon, although most are covered and charge admission: the Fordyce Bathhouse, Ozark Bathhouse, Buckstaff Bathhouse, and Quapaw Baths & Spa beckon alongside the Superior Bathhouse & Brewery. I walked by a five-star hotel or two and then spent an hour exploring the Arlington Hotel.
The west side of the street must be for families with kids: Madame Toussaud’s Wax Museum, Tombstone Old Time Photo, Duck Tours and the Gangster Museum of America.  On that beautiful spring morning I tried to imagine dark nights with lots of illegal booze, perhaps supplied and certainly imbibed by Al Capone, who famously loved to visit Hot Springs in the 1920’s and 30’s. Miles and Jasper (now nearly 9 and 6) were several years younger, and I loved buying them fancy official national park vests and compasses.
I’m sure glad I didn’t plan on being a tourist today, peering through the rain. Hopefully tomorrow will be at least partly sunny. It’s a two hour drive from here to Texarkana and then south through the national forest in east Texas to the village of McLeod. (Margaret’s maiden name) We visited McLeod, Montana before Chris was born in 1980 and got a great photo beside the sign.
Then it’s just a few minutes drive to Caddo Lake State Park. I want to see the famous cypresses and alligators, close my eyes and listen to echoes of birds flying over the swamp. Then I’ve been invited to eat homemade chili and spend the night with Casey and his wife Michelle in Tyler.
Several years ago a mutual friend insisted that I stop to meet Casey on Casey’s birthday. We had never met, but I was driving through west Texas returning from Big Bend National Park, and Casey was a great host for a couple of hours in his church office.  Back then he was the Episcopal priest in a small conservative Texas town. Now the Berkhouses are back in their home town, caring for their parents in Tyler. Casey serves as traveling chaplain for Texas prison guards and parole officers, as well as caring for and preaching for an Episcopal flock on Sundays.
My fondest Casey-memories hover around phone prayers, especially a prayer in 2021 from the chapel at Ascension Seton Hospital, while Margaret was in 14-hour open heart surgery. That time, and every time, his prayers reach into my heart.
What will separate us from the love of Christ?
Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?
Paul’s words ring through the days and years of my life. Partly at least because of Paul’s assurances to the Romans, I spend less time in the not-yet future than the already past – the stories, the history of Us, of Margaret and me. It’s like those memories get stored in a big old cedar chest in our attic, more or less forgotten until now and then, we open the chest. A great whiff of cedar draws us in, and then … we begin to remember. Forty-six years is a long time full of light and darkness, full of sound and fury. Signifying … so much. Signifying everything.
In all these things we are more than conquerors
through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities,
neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God
that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And that’s a wrap.
(Romans 8, Psalm 109, Luke 19, Luke 13)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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