Tonight we lost our last softball game of the season. By one run. In the bottom of the seventh. To our biggest rival. It stings a bit. But then I looked at the date and remembered that tomorrow is October 6. And that stings a bit more.
Tomorrow marks 12 years since Sgt. Bob Kimberling was killed in the line of duty as a highway patrolman. Tomorrow marks 12 years since my family lost one of our closest friends. Tomorrow marks 12 years since his family lost a husband and a father.
So tomorrow I will be able to get over our loss tonight. Because it wasn't really loss. It was a game. And it had high points and low points and fun points and nerve-wracking points…but it was a game.
My dad mentioned two years ago when I blogged about Bob's death that he remembers thinking at the funeral that he didn't want people to forget; he didn't want Bob's memory to die with him. I don't think it has. Tomorrow morning a large group of friends, family, patrolmen, and other servicemen in the area will meet for their annual "Kimberling breakfast" in remembrance. Drivers on interstate 29 will drive by the section dedicated and named after him. Students and teachers at his high school will set foot in the "Robert Kimberling Gymnasium" and they will remember.
And you who are reading this… you will remember. So thank you. Thank you for remembering.
We all miss Bob, but we have the blessed assurance that he is in a far better place, in far better hands.
Our God is still faithful. And so tomorrow I will have perspective, and I will remember.
1 comment:
First thing I thought of this morning.
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