This is the first blog I’ve actually composed since the surgery. I hope the “time delay” entries were useful for you.

Yesterday, I spoke at the graveside service for my friend, Col Don “Crusher” Craigie, at the Air Force Academy. With surgery just 8 days before, it was a monumental effort for me to be there, but God got me through it! In addition to Taps, always moving, the highlight of such a service is the “Missing Man Formation” flyover. A four-ship approaches, in this case, the team was from his last assignment when he was Wing Commander at Vance AFB, near Enid, Oklahoma. At the last second one of the planes pulls up and leaves the formation, symbolizing the departed. I tear up as I write.

A few minutes before, I closed my remarks with verses from 2 Corinthians 5. Crusher had suffered much over the past year, and especially the last four weeks. This encouragement from Paul seemed appropriate:

…We know that when these bodies of ours are taken down like tents and folded away, they will be replaced by resurrection bodies in heaven—God-made, not handmade—and we’ll never have to relocate our “tents” again. Sometimes we can hardly wait to move—and so we cry out in frustration. Compared to what’s coming, living conditions around here seem like a stopover in an unfurnished shack, and we’re tired of it! We’ve been given a glimpse of the real thing, our true home, our resurrection bodies!…When the time comes, we’ll be plenty ready to exchange exile for homecoming. (2 Corinthians 5. 1 – 8, MSG)

Crusher, welcome home.