A loyal man

Over 40 years ago my Melanie's dad taught and baptized a very neat man.  His name is Sam Carpenter. Sam and his wife Mary have been full steam ahead Christians. Sam has served as an elder in the church, he and Mary adopted 5 orphaned children, they have been to mission points all over the world and have opened children's homes in several countries.  Sam was a bank president by trade but he was first and foremost a Christian man.

Sam and Mary had a son, Glenn who was the exact same age as Melanie's brother, Tim. They shared a birthday. They were best friends.  We used to joke that Glenn never had to talk, that Tim talked for him! They went to Freed-Hardeman together and one night in March, 1983 heading back to school they were in separate cars following each other when Tim was hit head on by a drunk driver who was going the wrong way on I-65 outside of Birmingham. Tim was killed immediately. Glenn saw the whole thing.  

Glenn has served as a faithful Christian his whole life. He and his wife have raised 3 pretty amazing children. He served as a deacon in the church in Roanoke where Melanie’s dad preaches. Glenn's oldest son is on the football team at Faulkner. When I think of Glenn I think of the word loyal.  He has been faithful over everything that has touched his life and as a result he quietly touched many lives. We got a call Monday evening that Glenn, who is a truck driver, was in MIssissippi and was killed in an car accident.  

I’ve preached many times in Roanoke, AL but only preached two funerals there. One was Tim’s the other was Glenn’s. Both times the building was filled to capacity with people who love these two families. Their lives have paralleled many times but this was one intersection we did not anticipate or desire.

Tim and Glenn were best friends. Both died much earlier than any of us desired. But believing what I do, I can see with “the eye of faith” the two of them enjoying the grand reunion of that friendship!

“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him” (1Th 4:14).